A Clockwork Tangerine
by Hcobb
Summary: Natsume adopts Mikan as his pet and trains her like a dog. Includes the continuation, "Sana's Alice".
1. Chapter 1

[Alice Academy][fanfic] A Clockwork Tangerine, Chapter 1.

By Henry J. Cobb

Actually I'm flattered that 8-faces of the moon-8 copied this story over to .net s 4946605 1 A-Clockwork-Tangerine but I was working on it first, for example: pipermail ffml 2007-October

The Gakuen Alice characters and situations are the creation of Higuchi Tachibana and this parody is not intended to cause any damage to that property.

This fanfic follows episode eight of the anime (Ironically replacing episode nine, but I couldn't resist the title) and includes some elements from later episodes, with my own unsubtle twists.

Chapter one: Shake.

My name's Natsume Hyuuga and I'm ten years old. I attend a school for children who are gifted with unusual abilities; I wasn't given a choice and my gift is too valuable for them to give up. I wear the stupid school uniform they assign me, but I don't wear the silly ribbon necktie or the special star they awarded me when they decided I was the top elementary student.

There's another student in my homeroom class who doesn't wear a star, but that's because she's the only student in the class who isn't worth even one ordinary star in the rating system they impose on us. In the two years I've been a prisoner of Alice Academy I have never seen them clamp down on a new student so quickly and so throughly for so little reason. What makes Mikan Sakura so special to them that they would apply the ultimate sanction of assigning her as my partner?

All her alice seems to do is protect her from other peoples' alices. In some ways it's an impressive power, I can't burn her and our language teacher Mr. Narumi can't control her mind, but other students with less powerful alices have read her mind and suspended her in mid air like a pinata without difficulty. It's like it's sitting there and watching and only nullifying alices that it considers to be grave threats to her.

They can't control her with their alices so they've clamped down with the social restrictions and the worst part is that it's working because she cares about the supid rules they impose on us. They drove her into making an escape attempt and then locked her in her room when she made it outside the gate. The only reason she got that far is that she talked three students who ought to know better into helping her.

And now this morning they've finally let her attend class again. She's been crying again, but you wouldn't know it by looking at her big brown eyes. She even forced a smile when she saw her childhood friend Hotaru Imai in the class, but Hotaru kept reading her book and made no reply.

They have made a mistake. They have handed me a key and shown me how to turn it. That's going to cost them everything. "So your little escape plan failed, didn't it miss no-star? Mr. Narumi was sent to fetch you and you were so grateful that you slept with him and called him Daddy."

"What! How did you know? It wasn't like that." Mikan blushed redder than the auburn hair she kept tied up in twin pigtails.

"If you want to keep secrets then you'd best learn to control your alice. Now shut up Stupid and come sit here," I patted the one always empty seat in the classroom, the one to my left.

"Why should I sit next to a jerk like you?"

"Because you agreed to be my partner. Because you promised to do everything I said."

"Hmph!"

"She promised to do everything we told her to."

"I'm the one who won that dodge ball game." One look was all it took to silence the rest of the class. Nobody likes to burn.

Ruka Nogi and the bunny he always carried watched as Mikan sat on the other side of me.

Sorry buddy, but you're too sweet on her, helping her escape and everything. You can't be tough enough for what has to be done.

Sumire Shoda's green eyes followed Mikan and her lips tightened as if she was about to bare her fangs. This was the first time I had ever asked a girl to sit at my table and Mikan wasn't even a member of Sumire's unoffical Natsume-Ruka fangirls club.

Hotaru continued to read her book, but I could see in the tension in her shoulders that she knew that something was up, but wasn't sure about what to do about it yet.

The teachers were surprised at the new configuration with me in the classroom and Mikan next to me, but none of them dared complain, except Jinno. "Miss Sakura, why are you not in your seat?" He pointed his antenna wand at her. With that he's able to direct his lightning bolts to the far corners of the classroom.

"She's sitting next to her partner. Has she been reassigned?"

"Very well Mr. Hyuuga, but anything she does from now on will be marked against your record as well."

Like I care.

At the lunch bell Mikan ran to follow Hotaru out the door.

"No-star."

"What? it's lunchtime."

"Shut up and follow me."

Ruka glanced back a few times, but he walked beside me as I slowly made my way to the cafeteria with Mikan three steps behind.

A hush settled over the students as I took my seat at the top student table.

"No-star, go grab your lunch then sit here." I pointed to the seat across the table from me.

The cafeteria staff scrambled to prepare the prescribed top student lunch for me as Mika went to wait at the back of the line.

My lunch had just been delivered when Mikan returned. She glanced hungrily at my princely spread as she picked at her simple bowl of rice.

"You won't have the strength for your training on just that. Open up." I picked up a slice of prime steak with my chopsticks and fed it to her then a mushroom for myself.

"That's like an indirect kiss!" Sumire rushed over. "Is she your girlfriend?"

"No, she's my pet." I put down my chopsticks and patted Mika on the head. "Doesn't she look just like a puppy dog? That's why I feed her table scraps."

"That is unforgivable!"

I didn't look at Sumire as she walked back to her own lunch with her usual catlike grace, but instead caught Hotaru's dark purple eyes for a moment before she looked down at the book she was reading during lunch.

Mikan missed this exchange as she was watching Sumire. "Why? Why was she so insulted when you called me a dog?"

"I guess you haven't seen her alice yet. Now shut up and let me enjoy my lunch."

Mikan had her best meal to date as a prisoner of the Academy with the items I fed her. She enjoyed it so much that she didn't even seem to notice Sumire, Hotaru and Ruka's furtive glances.

After classes Mikan again made a rush for the door.

"No-star."

"What? I have to do my no-star chores."

"Those can wait a few minutes. Follow me." I lead her out to the soccer field. "Stand there." I counted off ten paces and turned to face her. "This is your training for today. All you have to do is put your hand on mine." I held out my right hand with a torch sized flame on my palm.

"Natsume..."

"What's the matter? Won't your alice protect you? Isn't that all it's good for, protecting a stupid no-star?"

Mikan slowly walked up and waited a few seconds then put her hand on top of mine. "Ow!" She jerked her hand back and blew on her palm.

"Are you burned? Show my your hand."

"No, not really, it just stung a bit."

"OK, we're done for now. Go do your no-star chores."

Dinner followed the same procedure as lunch. Mikan had her simple bowl of rice plus whatever I chose to hand feed her, until she looked up and saw Ruka staring at her. Then she ran off and I didn't stop her.

I took a walk through the woods after dinner and Ruka followed.

"Natsume, why are you doing this? What's this game you're playing?"

"It's no game. Or maybe it's a very dangerous game. I don't think you should be seen with me or Mikan again. We're not safe to be around."

"I don't know you anymore." Ruka shook his head and walked off.

That's it buddy, go play with your animal friends. It's safer for you and me.

Mikan was sitting under the exact tree I had predicted. One glance was all it took to send her running, no doubt to Hotaru. It made no difference. Hotaru was doomed the moment Mikan followed her to this prison.

"Yes, what are you playing at?" Persona's voice drifted in from the darkness behind me.

"Leave me be and find out, or reassign her if you're so frightened of her."

"She is nothing to fear, but if it makes you better behaved like this, you can keep your pet. Do whatever you like with her."

"Whatever." I walked back to my room and that night in my sleep remembered flames engulfed me as always.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter two: Play catch.

Thursday morning at breakfast Ruka walked up with his tray, but I shook my head so he took the next table over.

Sumire exercised her unspoken prerogative as president of the unofficial Natsume-Ruka fanclub and took the seat to his right.

Hotaru raised an eyebrow, picked up her tray and moved to take the seat to Ruka's left. Everybody else kept further away.

Mikan finally made it through the line and placed her tray in front of mine. She had a bowl of miso soup in addition to the rice, the only variety she was supposed to be allowed in her diet as a no-star. Not that I cared what the rules were.

Mikan looked over her shoulder at the three students, then turned away from their direct gaze. She pointed with her chopsticks, "May I have some of the scrambled egg please?"

"No. Be quiet. I'll give you what I want to give you and nothing more." I finished my breakfast without offering her anything. Sumire grinned at this, but the two students next to her frowned.

While Ruka was fuming about this, Sumire took advantage of his distraction to feed her vegetables to the rabbit he always carried around with him. She seemed to be instinctively carnivorous. But aren't animals supposed to fear and shun fire?

In Jinno's math class Hotaru took her revenge, "No, that's incorrect."

"What?"

"While you have the right answer for this case, the formula you gave would be off by one for an odd number of fence posts. You need to round up rather than down."

"Whatever." If I didn't have to babysit Mikan I wouldn't even be in this class.

At lunch Mikan was silent and hence well fed.

After classes we went again to the soccer field. There was a larger crowd than the previous day. Even Hotaru lingered rather than rushing directly to her workshop.

Mikan took her place and I held out a flame on my palm.

"This test again?" She asked.

"Until you get it right Stupid."

"OK." Mikan walked up to me and my flame went out when she was three steps away.

"Stop!" I suppressed a smile. She does have range, now let me see if she can do the other things I think she can.

"What?"

"Go back and start over. You're only allowed to nullify my Alice when you're just about to take my hand."

She stepped back and my flame restarted then she walked forwards and this time my flame went away only as she was reaching for my hand.

"Like this?"

"Yes, we're done. Go do your no-star chores. We can start on the basics tomorrow."

"The basics? How long is this going to take?"

"Everybody else at this school has been working on their Alices for years. You've got a lot of catching up to do no-star." And then you'll be out of my hands and the real fun can start.

One of the girls in the Ruka and my fan club said how lucky Mikan was to have a personal trainer and how she wished I would train her, but Sumire's glare silenced her.

Friday afternoon we went to the field again and the crowd was even larger.

"This part is easy, all you have to do is stand there," I created a flame in midair and slowly moved it towards her, "Snuff out the flame just before it gets to your face."

She put out the fire when it was three feet ahead of her.

"No, closer. Wait until you can feel the heat," I sent another one towards her, but a little faster this time.

She stopped it one foot away.

I sent two more at her, at faster and faster speeds and she stopped them at point blank range.

"OK, I've got it. How much longer is this going to go on?"

"Now we can start. Put this on," I took a blindfold out of my pocket and tossed it to her.

"What?"

"Yes, you need to stop the fireballs blindfolded."

"Why?"

"If you can't do this then you're not only stupid and clumsy, but useless."

"Why are you always so mean to me?" She put on the blindfold.

I sent the next fireball up very slowly and she nullified it just before it reached her face. Then I gently sped them up. Five fireballs later I was up to full speed and she was stopping them just before she could have felt the heat on her face.

I stopped to wipe the sweat from my face. Big stationary fires are easy, small ones floating in midair on precise paths are more difficult.

"Bravo!" Mr. Narumi clapped, "Are you two working on a magic trick for the school festival?"

"Dangerous Ability Alices aren't allowed to participate." But thank you so very much for rubbing that in. How long had he been watching this?

"Mr. Narumi?" Mikan removed her blindfold.

"Hi Mikan, I'm here about your chores."

"Oh," Mikan glanced up at the clock tower, "I'm late!"

"No, you don't have to do the no-star chores anymore."

"I've been promoted to one star?"

"No, it's just that they're suspended for the duration of your training. Well, I've got to get back to grading papers now."

"See, even your 'Daddy' knows that you're my property. We're done here for today. Keep the blindfold and bring it back on Monday."

"I have to keep using my power blind?"

"Yeah," I've got things to show you.

Saturday morning as the combined Dangerous Ability class was breaking up, Yoichi Hijiri walked up to me, "Natsume, can we go town today? I wanna get something for mommy."

"Sure." Poor little kid, yanked away from his family when he was only two years old and he hasn't seen any of them in the year since. I wonder how well he even remembers his mother's voice.

We went by his kindergarten homeroom class to pick up his 30 rabbits for being a one-star and then to mine. As a special star, I'd get 300 rabbits and I wanted to make sure he could get something nice.

When I entered Sumire was pestering Ruka about which store they should go to but he ignored her and waved to me and Yoichi.

Mikan seemed quite pleased with her 5 no-star rabbits and was buzzing around the room asking everybody about Central Town. Then she spotted Yoichi on my lap, "Oh, how cute. Who is this?"

"He's Yoichi," Ruka answered, "He's in the Dangerous Ability group with Natsume."

"Is he your son Natsume?"

"Don't be stupid."

"Don't be stupid."

"Melon head."

"Melon head."

"You shouldn't teach a young child to say such things." Mikan held out her arms to Yoichi. What part of Dangerous Ability did she not understand? "Come to me Yo-chan. You don't need to sit with such a grump."

Yoichi looked up to me.

"Let her have it."

He nodded, turned back towards Mikan and showered her with ghostly apparitions.

"Yiiiii!" Mikan jumped back with her pigtails flailing about.

Yoichi's ghosts vanished.

A boy who was levitating around the front of classroom fell onto a desk and rolled off onto the floor.

Hotaru put down her pen, closed her notebook, pressed her fingers against her forehead then stood and turned around, "Mikan!"

"What? I'm sorry, I didn't mean."

At that moment the door slammed open and Jinno entered. "What is the meaning of this? You there, what are you doing on the floor?"

"My power cut out sir, I couldn't help it."

"It's Mikan's fault," Sumire pointed at her, "she did it."

Jinno walked over to the boy, "Are you hurt?"

"No sir," the boy got to his feet, "I'm fine."

"Let that be a lesson to you about recklessly using your Alice in the classroom then," Jinno turned to Mikan, "Miss Sakura you are grounded. Go to your room and remain there until Monday morning."

"But it wasn't my fault."

"Silence. I will have no backtalk from you, young lady."

Hotaru frowned at what she had just written in her notebook and paid no attention as Mikan passed her.

I let Mikan get almost to the door before I spoke up, "Miss Sakura is coming with me to Central Town today. She can be grounded when she comes back."

Jinno tightened his lips at this and considered for a moment then responded, "Very well, she is your responsibility Mr. Hyuuga," He turned and left.

"How? How did you do that?"

"He knows that you're my property. Anyway, I've got a job for you today."

"You're going to make her sell snacks on the bus?" One of the students suggested.

"Nope, even better. Here, hold Yoichi."

"Do I gotta?" He asked.

"Wait until she drops her guard then let her have it again."

"Ok."

"Yo-chan you shouldn't hang around with such a mean boy," Mikan picked him up carefully, like a bomb.


	3. Chapter 3

[Alice Academy][fanfic] A Clockwork Tangerine, Chapter 3.

By Henry J. Cobb

The Gakuen Alice characters and situations are the creation of Higuchi Tachibana and this parody is not intended to cause any damage to that property.

Chapter three: Lap Dog.

Yoichi wanted the window seat on the bus to Central Town, so I had him sit on Mikan's lap. I took the seat next to her so she'd have no quick escape.

He waited a few minutes then pointed out the window, "Look, a deer."

"Where?" Mikan looked out the window to her right.

Yoichi looked over Mikan's left shoulder and summoned a ghost right next to her left ear.

She looked to the left, "Yii!", tighened her grip on Yoichi and banished his ghost. "That wasn't very nice Yo-chan."

"It's my alice."

"That doesn't make it right."

When we got off the bus Yoichi grabbed my hand. "This way."

Mikan followed us to the Talking Pictures store. "They make movies?"

"Something like that. Every shop in Central Town has a bit of Alice to it." I held open the door for both of them.

Yoichi walked up to the counter and stood on tiptoes, "I want of picture of me please."

"Sure, that will be 35 rabbits please," Mr. Edogawa, the old man who ran the shop, replied.

Yoichi counted out his 30 rabbits and seemed to be at a bit of a loss.

"Thirty five." Mikan put her five rabbit coin on the counter.

"This way please." Mr. Edogawa pulled out his special camera. "You get one minute. That's the same amount of time it takes that narrow hand to go completely around on that clock, ok?"

"I understand."

"Ready? OK, start now."

Yoichi smiled. "Hi mommy! I'm doing very well at school. I've made lots of friends and they even gave me a star," He held up his collar. "I'll see you soon."

Mr. Edogawa went back to his darkroom and returned a few minutes later with a photo of Yoichi in a frame. As he held it up the photo came to life and repeated Yoichi's message, "Is this the way you want it to be?"

"Pwerfect."

"Shall I wrap it up?"

"Here's the address to send it to." I wrote out a mailing slip then showed it to Yoichi.

"Yeah, that's it."

After we left the shop Mikan turned and asked me, "He gets to send packages to his family?"

"Yeah, he isn't considered as dangerous as you are. It'll be checked before it's shipped but I doubt they'll stop it."

"Why didn't you send a picture?"

"I don't have anybody to send anything to anymore. Say Yoichi, would you like some lunch? I know of this cafe around the corner."

"Okay."

"You're paying for both of us?"

"Yeah, it would ruin Yoichi's lunch if he had to look at you starving there."

Anna Umenomiya, the cooking alice from our class, brought three menus to our table then took out an order pad. "Hi, can I get you three something to drink?"

"Sure..." Mikan flipped through the menu then put it down. "Anna, why are you taking our order?"

"She's helping out her folks." I skimmed through the menu. There were no changes from the last time I'd been there, so I put it down.

"Your parents work here?" Mikan blinked at Anna.

"Yes." Anna pointed at the Cafe sign that matched her own last name. "They own the place."

"You get to see your parents?"

"Most weekends."

"Natsume!" Mikan clutched at my hands. "You've got some sort of influence. You can get my grandad a job at the school!"

"Sure, what's his alice?"

"He hasn't got one. I would have known it somehow if he did."

"Too bad." I yanked my hands back.

"Mikan, I'm so sorry."

"No Anna, it's not your fault. So your parents are alices?"

"Yes, they both have cooking alices. It kind of runs in the family. Only they've got much better control than I do."

"Go back and see your folks." I waved Anna off. "I'll have Mikan read the menu to Yoichi and we'll call you when we're ready."

After lunch Mikan wiped the corners of Yoichi's mouth with a napkin.

"I can do it myself." He stared up at her but didn't push her away.

A lady carrying some packages stopped and said, "Oh, what a cute little family."

I glared at her and she decided to walk away, but she wasn't going to get away that easily. "Yoichi."

"Yes, Natsume?"

"Teach her what happens when she taunts a Dangerous Ability student."

"Don't you dare!" Mikan pulled back from the monster on her lap.

"Stop him then, if you can." I pointed at the lady.

Yoichi watched the lady as she walked away, without visible effect, then he turned towards Mikan.

She looked down at him. "Don't start with me."

The two stared at each other for a minute and nothing seemed to happen. Then Yoichi pointed across the street at the Hawalon sweet shop. "Natsume can I have some?"

"Sure, you've been a good boy all day."

"This is good?" Mikan picked him up.

"He does what I ask him to do, without complaining."

Yoichi offered me a piece from the box I had bought him then he teased Mikan with a piece, but finally tossed it into her gaping maw.

On the bus ride back Yoichi fell asleep in Mikan's arms.

I lead her to his room and she tucked him in. On the way back to the Elementary school dorm she turned to me and asked, "Now what?"

"You're grounded, remember? Go to your room No-star and stay there until Monday morning."

Sunday at noon I knocked on Mikan's door.

Mikan opened the door and turned to let me in. "Natsume, How did you get past Takahashi? She's been watching my door all day."

"Third law of robotics."

"Do you usually go to girl's rooms and have your way with them?"

"I brought lunch." I held up a sack.

"Oh, gimmie."

"I didn't say whose lunch and it isn't free."

"I guess I have to starve then. I'm broke."

"Not rabbits stupid. I'm not Hotaru. You've got to earn your lunch."

"More training? You're not going to start a fire in my room are you?"

"This big," I sprouted a candle sized flame from my right index finger.

Mikan looked at the sack. "What's the test then?"

"Just tell which of my hands is holding up the flame."

"And?"

"Blindfolded."

"I knew it." She sat down on her bed and put on the blindfold I had given her previously.

I pulled up her chair and sat in front of her. "Now which hand is holding the flame?"

"Left."

It was my right.

I repeated the test nineteen more times. "Ok, we're done."

She took off the blindfold. "How did I do?"

"You were right sixty percent of the time. That beats random chance, but just barely."

"So I get lunch?"

"Is sixty percent a passing grade? You get an apple, that's all."

Why had she done so poorly? Was it the small size of the flame or my lack of intent to harm her with it?


	4. Chapter 4

[Alice Academy][fanfic] A Clockwork Tangerine, Chapter 4.

By Henry J. Cobb

The Gakuen Alice characters and situations are the creation of Higuchi Tachibana and this parody is not intended to cause any damage to that property.

Chapter four: Spot.

Monday at breakfast Mikan came to my table with a hurt look, but she stayed silent, so I fed her.

Monday afternoon we continued the training. I asked Mikan to simply point at my flame whenever she noticed it, while wearing the blindfold. For the first few times I rushed it directly towards her with an intent to burn her if she didn't notice it and she spotted it each time.

Then I changed tactics and had the flame circle her at a distance. Every time she faltered I rushed the flame towards her and thought about burning her and she'd find it again.

After an hour she was able to spot it consistently, even when I had it circle her without an intent to harm, so I turned it off and walked around her while thinking.

Then I noticed that she was pointing at me. "I'm not using my Alice."

"Oh?" Mikan paused for a moment. "Yeah, that's right, sorry Natsume."

"No, that's great. Training is over for the day, No-star."

Tuesday afternoon I waited for her to put on her blindfold, then I walked up and took her left hand, "OK, follow me." I walked her around in circles for a bit then asked. "Other than me, can you see any other alices?"

"Yes, there's Ruka." She pointed at him with her free hand. "He's a cute little bunny. And next to him is Sumire. She's some kind of animal, a dog, no a cat, no a raccoon?"

"You can't do anything right, can you No-star." Sumire replied.

As I lead her around the campus she was able to name our fellow classmates and at least guess at the general type of alice for most of the rest.

I stopped in front of two adults. "Who are these?"

"I see a gypsy fortune teller."

"Anybody else?"

"No, not nearby."

"I'm not surprised that you can't sense me Mikan." The middle aged man replied.

"What?" Mikan took off her blindfold.

"I was only a childhood alice." The man continued. "And now I'm just the school accountant."

"And that was a very astute guess Mikan." Ms. Yamada said. "Especially since I'm not carrying my crystal ball with me at the moment."

As we moved on Mikan put her blindfold on again then asked me. "What's a childhood alice?"

"Didn't your category teacher tell you about Alice forms?"

"No, Mr. Noda's been away all this time."

"Lost in time again no doubt. A childhood alice is an alice that only exists during the user's childhood and then goes away when they become an adult."

"That sounds awful."

"At least they get to live long enough to grow up."

"And here's Hotaru." Mikan pointed at her childhood friend. "She's got - Hotaru!" Mikan pulled off her blindfold and pulled her hand from mine. She ran over, grabbed Hotaru's face and stared in her eyes. Then she felt Hotaru's fingers, and moved to hug Hotaru from the side and started nibbling on Hotaru's earlobe.

Hotaru elbowed Mikan in the gut to get free. "What is wrong with you?"

Mikan fell to the ground, then looked up at Hotaru. "When I looked at your alice I saw gears and metal springs and stuff. I thought you had been replaced with a robot."

"Robots don't have Alices." Hotaru replied.

"Oh yeah, that's right. Sorry Hotaru."

"OK, since you're just going to be stupid and embarrassing, the training is over for the day No-star." I turned away and suppressed a chuckle at the image of the always cool Hotaru as a clockwork mannequin.

That night I only got a few hours sleep before the flames engulfed me again. I sat up in bed and picked up a pill bottle from my nightstand.

I heard a knock at my door. There could only be one person stupid enough to bother me in the middle of the night and when I opened my door I saw that it was indeed Mikan. "Do you always come to boys' rooms in the middle of the night to have your way with them?"

"I see Alices." She stood there in pajamas and bunny slippers.

"Yes Stupid, I know that. Now go back to your room and go to sleep."

"I see everybody's Alices, all the time. I can't sleep."

"So what did Hotaru say?" I didn't need to ask Mikan if she had gone to Hotaru first as her naive stupidity makes her very predictable.

"She said she doesn't even bother to try to control her Alice so she wouldn't know where to start and she called me stupid. Since you're training me I thought you might know something."

"I only feel my Alice when I'm using it. It isn't on all the time. Come on in and sit down. Here." I handed her a bottle of water from my minifridge and got one for myself.

"Thanks. Say, how come this soda doesn't taste like anything?"

"It's mineral water, not soda, stupid. The bubbles are natural gases from underground."

"Oh. Where's it from?"

"France."

"I wonder what's it like in France?"

"I was sent there once. It's a lot like here. They even have a copy of the Tokyo Tower in Paris."

"What's a Tokyo Tower?"

"You are so dumb. Here, you can take one of these pills. They've helped me sleep." I handed her the pill bottle then turned to open the door.

"Thanks!"

I turned back when I heard her take a big chug of water. "No, not now, when you're back in your room. OK, run up the stairs before that takes effect."

"Does it work fast?" She tried to stand up and slumped back in the chair.

I considered dragging her to her room, but I wasn't in the mood to explain any of this to anybody so I carried her to my bed and tucked her in. "Goodnight, No-star."

It wasn't the first time I'd slept on my couch and I woke up sore as usual. It was still dark out so I went to check on my uninvited guest.

As I approached the bed I noticed a too familiar scent. She hadn't. I pulled back the covers. She had. I slapped her.

"Huh? What?"

"You wet my bed."

"Your bed?" Mikan looked around my room then down at herself. "Oh, sorry!"

"There's my bathroom, go clean yourself up then get out of here. I'll kill you when this gets out."

"Don't you mean if?"

"No, too many kids have information finding alices around here. They'll find out."

I grabbed a few things from my closet then opened the door to my bathroom.

"Eeek!"

"I've got a shower curtain for a reason, Stupid. It keeps the water from splashing around."

"Oh sorry." She closed the curtain then turned towards me from behind it. "Now I can never get married."

"You keep saying that like it's even a possibility."

"It's not a possibility that I won't get married?"

"Not if the Academy has anything to say about it."

"Why should they care?"

"The source of the Academy's power is the Alice power. They're not going to let their most powerful student just walk away. They'll do whatever it takes to continue and control your bloodline."

"I thought you were the most powerful student?"

"I was, until you turned yourself in at the front gate. I brought you a spare uniform of mine. Get dressed and get back to your own room before somebody notices you hanging around here."

"Well I just hope that whoever they pick for me is brave and smart and good looking and he always fights for what he knows is right."

"You are an idiot." I closed the bathroom door sharply behind me, but I didn't slam it.

She even took the time to use my hair dryer before she came out. "How do I look?"

"Like a silly little girl in a boy's silly school uniform."

"It's a little too big for me, especially the underwear."

"Just take your polka-dot patties with you. I don't want to explain how they wound up in my laundry."

"You knocked me out and then you looked at my body!"

"I only looked at you in the shower and I sure didn't want to. I saw them on the floor of my bathroom."

"It's the only clothes from my old life I get to wear to class, but they're still damp."

"So wrap them in a towel and get back to your room until you can wash them."

"OK, thanks for everything then."

"Please don't mention it Stupid. When you do, I'll kill you." I opened my door and looked around but didn't see anybody so I shooed her out then started to get ready for the day.

Mikan caught up with me on the way to breakfast. "I think somebody spotted me on the way to my room."

"Did they or didn't they?"

"I only got one glance. It was somebody on their hands and knees and there was something about their ears. By the time I looked back they were gone without making a sound."

"Of all the people you had to show that to. There's no way she'd fail to catch my scent on you."

"Somebody has an alice like that?"

"She's in our class."

"Who?"

"Work it out stupid. You're the one with the ability to spot alices."

As I feared Sumire was sitting with the other members of her fangirls for me and Ruka club at breakfast. The entire group was whispering and looking at me and Mikan. Of course this left Hotaru alone at Ruka's table and she took advantage of this to pamper Ruka's bunny.

I cut breakfast short and dragged Mikan away.

"Aren't we going to class?"

"No, as long as you're sick, you're going to cause me problems. We're going to see my second-least-favorite person, your 'daddy'."

We found Mr. Narumi at the teacher's lounge and I explained Mikan's insomnia to him, but not her little sleepover.

"Hmmm, that is serious." Mr. Narumi rummaged through his desk. "This is our most powerful model of control bracelet, but I don't recall anybody ever having to nullify a nullification alice before. Mikan, I'm going to put this on you and then you need to see if you can still see our Alices, ok?"

"Sure." She held out her wrist.

"Here goes." He locked it in place and it activated.

"Ow!" Mikan put her other hand around the bracelet. "It hurts!"

"OK, relax and I'll get it off." The bracelet was already smoking when Mr. Narumi removed it and it continued to spark for a few seconds after he dropped it to the floor. "There's some feedback element here. I think that's because it works on the same principle as your own power does Mikan."

"So, can't I use a ring or earring instead?" She asked.

"Those work in the same way and we can't just keep you drugged all the time either because of the side effects. No, I'm going to have to assign you to the Insanity Inducing Alices group."

"Is that a sixth group, like the Special Abilities alices?" she asked.

"No, it's a study group for alices of all types that have the potential to affect the user's own mind. We meet every Thursday afternoon, but I'm going to get somebody to help you today. You like Misaki Harada, don't you?"

"Yeah, she's great. Does her alice drive her crazy?"

"When she splits off into multiple bodies her mind splits also and it takes her a bit of an effort to pull it together afterwards. I'll have her start you on yoga and meditation today and let's see if you can get some sleep tonight."

That sounded kind of boring, but at least Mikan was out of my hands for a while. Not having anything better to do I returned to class, just after first period.

Ruka and his rabbit looked up as I entered the classroom. "Where's Mikan?"

"She's got a medical problem."

"What?" Sumire sprang to her feet.

Hotaru dropped the book she was reading.

Ruka fell out of his seat.

The rest of the class turned to me with jaws agape.

That was a much stronger reaction than I had expected. What had Sumire told them all? "It's not that big a deal. She's just been assigned to the Crazy Alices group, cause the problem is all in her empty head."


	5. Chapter 5

[Alice Academy][fanfic] A Clockwork Tangerine, Chapter 5 of 8 By Henry J. Cobb

The Gakuen Alice characters and situations are the creation of Higuchi Tachibana and this parody is not intended to cause any damage to that property.

Chapter five: Guard Dog

[With special thanks to David Johnston for prereading a draft.]

Wednesday night at 11 pm I was sitting in bed looking at my bottle of pills again when there was a single knock at my door. I pulled on a nightrobe, went to open the door, and asked Mikan, "How did you know I wasn't asleep?"

"Hi Natsume. There's a difference in the Alice when somebody's sleeping. I still can't sleep."

"Don't stand outside my door, get in here before somebody sees you."

Mikan walked straight to my nightstand and picked up the pill bottle. "Can I have another?"

"No." I grabbed it away from her. "It was hard enough having Takahashi tut tut over one mess. I'd burn any human being who looked at me that way. Did you at least bring yourself a diaper?"

Mikan blushed as orange red as her namesake, the tangerine. "I'm sorry, I wasn't prepared, please promise never to tell anybody!"

"You didn't react this strongly this morning."

"I was out of it, with the sleep and the drug and all."

"So what happened with the meditation?"

"I just started on that today. I try and I try and I still see everybody's Alices."

"OK, I've been thinking about it, so have a seat." I sat in my desk chair. "Somehow this wasn't a problem for you until I forced you to start actively looking for Alices, so you have some way of turning off your second sight and I think I know what it is. Close your eyes."

"Do I need to go get the blindfold?"

"Not for this. Now, how many Alices do you count in this room?"

"There's just you, that makes one."

"But you are also an Alice. So use your power to see your own Alice."

"I see myself looking at myself looking at myself looking at myself." Her eyes flashed open and she used both hands to steady herself against my desk. "It makes me dizzy."

"OK, one more thing to try. Close your eyes and nullify your own Alice."

"Huh? OK." She closed her eyes tightly, grimaced and shook slightly side to side for a few seconds, then she sat up calmly. "That's it. I can turn my Alice vision off and on now. Thanks Natsume!"

"OK, now get out, and don't come back here ever again, especially not after curfew."

"Good night, see you at breakfast." As Mikan stood up the alarm rang. "What's that?"

"The fire alarm, and they wouldn't run a test at this hour. Let's get out of here."

"Well at least we know that you didn't cause it, because I would have sensed it."

I grabbed her tightly by both shoulders and put my face inches from hers. "Don't ever joke about that again. Don't assume that you're so important that I won't kill you, and I can make it a lot more painful without my Alice."

"I - I'm sorry. I won't do it again."

I ran out my door with Mikan right behind me.

At that moment Sumire came running down the hallway. "It's a fire, It's a fire! You!" Sumire stopped and pointed at Mikan.

"What?" Ruka came out of his door, clutching his rabbit then looked at where Sumire was pointing. "Mikan? It's true?"

"Oh, I was just visiting with Natsume ..."

"Let's get out of here." I cut Mikan off. "Before the entire dorm falls on us."

When we got outside I could see that the fire was up on the third floor. I could feel the accusing glances of the other students. Then their gazes shifted to Mikan, who was holding on to my hand as she looked back at the dorm.

"Let go." I pulled out of her grasp.

"Sorry." She stopped and turned back to face the dorm, her head swinging side by side as if she was looking at it, or more likely through it. She pointed at a room with flames visible in the window. "There's somebody there, I think they're trapped."

"Throw me at that window." I ordered Moju, the class telekinetic.

"What?" He asked.

"I'm fireproof. Do it."

"OK, it's your funeral." He boosted me up.

I turned around in midair and kicked in the window. There was a rush of air and I choked on the smoke as I squinted through it. The fire from my Alice is smokeless and so my Alice doesn't protect me against smoke, just direct flame and extreme heat. At that moment I wished I was wearing my restriction mask, with its built in Alice-based smoke filter.

"Mommy, Mommy."

I crawled under the layer of smoke towards the voice of a young boy. He was trapped in a corner and clutching onto a video tape. I picked him up and ran through the flames to the window.

I shouted, "Catch!", then tossed the boy out. He fell a few feet then slowed down and started drifting to the ground.

The smoke was getting to be a bit much for me so I jumped out the window, landed on slightly bent knees then fell over backwards.

"Natsume!" Mikan pushed through the crowd, stumbled and fell on me. "You're safe! I was so worried." She pressed her face against my shoulder and sobbed.

Did Sumire trip her? All of the students seemed to be watching us with sour expressions. I grabbed Mikan by the shoulders and pushed her off me. "Is there anybody else trapped?"

Mikan brushed the tears from her eyes and scanned the building. "No, I don't think so. Oh, hi Hotaru!" Mikan waved to Hotaru who was sitting in a firefighter's outfit on a skycycle designed to look like a swan that was hovering 20 feet above us. "Don't worry, everybody's out."

"Then let's get further from the flames." I helped Mikan to her feet.

That night we all slept in the school gymnasium while they checked the Elementary Branch dorm for damage

In the morning most of us were allowed back in our rooms to prepare for class and the rest were issued school uniforms as needed.

The first two periods were canceled so by the time we had breakfast and got to class it was third period, Mr. Jinno's class.

Jinno looked even more constipated than usual. "I am going to speak to you now not as your teacher, but as director of the Elementary Branch of the Academy. There is a student from this class who rushed into the fire last night to save another. Will that student please stand."

All of the students turned to look at me, but I remained sitting.

"Mr. Hyuuga, I have have had enough of your reckless and disrespectful behavior. Not only did you violate every safety regulation at the school, but you also had another student in your room after curfew, a female student. And from what I understand, not for the first time either. You will not make a mockery of this school's regulations. From this moment, you and Miss Sakura are grounded indefinitely. You will remain in your own rooms under lock and key at all times except for classes and meals and you are not to sit next to each other at either classes or meals. Do you two understand me?"

At that exact moment the voice of my least-favorite-person came over the intercom. "Natsume Hyuuga, please report to my office."

Jinno stopped and the students all turned to their books.

"That was that scary person from before?" Mikan asked.

I got up. "Yeah, it's Persona." At the door I turned to Jinno and stage whispered loudly. "If you want to touch me, Jinno, then you'd best take it up with him first. And don't you dare take this out on Mikan, you sadist."

"This isn't over."

"Oh, yes it is. Be seeing you." I waved to him, then made my way to the Dangerous Ability section. There were no signs naturally, but I knew the route by heart.

Persona didn't look up from the maps he was studying as I entered his office. "I hear you had a hard time last night. Did she wear you out?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." I knew a little. They try to really restrict the reading material we're allowed at the Academy, especially in the Elementary Branch, but the restriction filters they put on the internet access terminals in the library were laughable.

"Go back to your room and rest up. We've got a mission tonight. I'll see you back here at 8 p.m."

"Sorry, but I've just been grounded by Mr. Jinno."

"That's canceled."

"And Mikan Sakura?"

"She is at your disposal. Do whatever you like with your pet. I must say that your results to date are intriguing. Perhaps you should be a teacher here."

"I can think of worse."

At dinner Mikan moved to sit next to Hotaru, but I beckoned her over to my table.

"I'm not grounded?" She put her tray across from mine.

"I got it cleared. How was class?"

"Mr. Jinno can't seem to shock anybody in class anymore and all the students like me, except for Sumire." Mikan nodded her head back towards Sumire, who seemed to be studying Mikan as if she was a rather tasty mouse.

"Don't bully the teachers." I fed Mikan some of my pepper beef.

That night I hid in the trees behind the back gate of the Academy. My instructions were to wait for one of a group of cars to pull up from one side or the other of the road and make sure that it made it in the gate without being followed. It was something about alternate routes and vehicles. Persona always makes things more complicated than they need to be and plans plots within plots.

I was sitting on a branch and yawning behind my restriction mask, wishing I could have brought a book or a music player or something. I didn't see Persona around but I was fairly sure that he was nearby.

I heard a car coming and saw its headlights. In the dark at this distance I couldn't tell if it was one of the three possible cars Persona had listed, but I had nothing better to do so I watched it.

Suddenly three men in dark suits and dark sunglasses jumped in front of the car and pointed pistols at it.

The car stopped and I jumped down on its hood. The gunmen were taken aback so I jumped off before they could react and threw fireballs at their guns.

The car made it through, but one of the gunmen drew another pistol and shot at me. He tagged me once just below my left ribs before I managed to get out of sight. I could have killed them all, but that wasn't part of my mission.

Persona was standing just inside the gate as he watched the car go by.

I jumped behind him and he told me that the mission was complete. I could have gone to the hospital, but it was late and I needed some rest after the last few nights.

In my room I cleaned out the wound and put on a gaze bandage. It was little more than a scratch so I didn't worry about it.

Mikan seemed more than usually happy at breakfast on Friday morning, and why shouldn't she be, with a sugar daddy to feed her and keep the Academy's restrictions off her back. At that moment I almost pitied her, but I needed a weapon, a really big one.

She looked at me. "Natsume, you've hardly touched your breakfast. Are you feeling ok?" She placed her hand against my forehead. "You've got a slight fever. Are you catching a cold?"

Yeah, no doubt from sitting around in a tree half the night in my shorts. "Don't touch me." I grabbed her wrist. "It's bad enough you've got the whole school talking."

"Talking about what?" She pulled her hand back.

"Never mind. Shut up and enjoy your breakfast." I was tempted to explain to her that the dictionary defines floozy more by reputation than by actions, but I didn't feel like lecturing her through all of human biology right at that moment.

At the start of classes Mr. Narumi announced that the school festival would be the next week, that we had a concert that afternoon by a Reo, and that we had the rest of the weekend off to prepare.

As everybody was preparing to go to their Alice type classes to prepare their displays a girl from another class came by. "Imai, do you have number 12?"

"Sure, that will be two rabbits please." Hotaru took the two coins and handed the girl a card from her backpack.

The girl went over to Ruka and asked. "Hi Ruka, can you sign this one for me please?"

I looked over, it was a photo of Ruka dancing with some animals.

Ruka snatched the card up. "Hotaru, why are you selling silly pictures of me?"

"Gotta go." Hotaru put on her backpack and rushed for the door.

"Hold it!" Ruka ran after her with the photo.

"Hey, I paid for that!" The girl from the other class watched them leave.

I considered torching her hair, but I didn't feel quite up to it.

All of the other students left for their Alice type classes. As I was the only Dangerous Ability student in the class, I didn't have a display to go help setup, so I stayed behind and read a manga I had mail ordered that was based on a RPG video game.

Some other kids came in and started working on their projects, so I got up and walked until I found a quiet shady spot under a tree.

Half an hour later Mikan walked past, staring at her feet.

"What's wrong this time, No-star?"

"Oh, Natsume. It's the other Special Ability students. They say they have no chance and no plan for the festival so they'll just go around making fun of everybody else. What are you doing, reading?"

"I was until just a moment ago."

"What's it about?" She sat right next to me and leaned over my shoulder. "So those people fight all these monsters and each of the monsters has a different special ability?"

"Something like that."

Mikan straightened up. "Hey Hotaru and Ruka, what are you doing hiding in the bushes together?"

"Er, nothing" Ruka blushed.

"He just wanted to get close to me." Hotaru nudged Ruka, causing him to blush even more.

I looked back to Mikan. "It seems that no Alice can sneak up on you now, No-star."

"I guess not." Mikan turned her head towards the path. "Wait..." She got up and walked back and forth on the path. "There's another Alice right here." She reached out both hands for something and stood there.

After a minute Mikan was sweating and breathing heavily. "I've almost got it. It keeps going forwards and back like it's bouncing on a spring, but it's getting closer every jump. Now it's right here!" Mikan yanked her hands back a little bit and was holding the hand of a full grown man.

It was Mr. Noda, the Special Ability teacher and time tripper Alice. He wore short sleeves, but had snow on his shoulders and head.

He brushed some of the snow off with his free hand then knelt down to stare at Mikan's face. "The resemblance. You look so much like her."

"What?" Mikan asked.

"Oh, sorry, I'm Mr. Noda." He stood back up. "You must be Mikan Sakura, right? How old are you now?"

"Uh, I'm still ten."

"So I'm back in the present. That was amazing, Mikan. Nobody has ever been able to use their Alices on me when I've been time tripping before. As the Special Ability Alice teacher I should have been training you, but I've been away elsewhen all this time. So I suppose I have someone else to thank for your training?"

"Natsume has been training me."

"Natsume?" Mr. Noda looked over at me. "Well I guess I'm in your debt, Mr. Hyuuga. Now Mikan, let's see how the Special Ability students are doing, shall we?"

"Oh, I've got this great idea for our school festival activity." Mikan lead her teacher off by the hand.

I turned back to my book, but the words started to blur. I leaned back against the tree, but I couldn't hold my balance. As I toppled over I heard Ruka calling my name.

Sometime later, I heard Mikan calling out my name over and over again at the top of her lungs, so I opened my eyes.

I was in a bed in the hospital with Mikan, Hotaru, Ruka, Sumire and Yoichi standing around me.

"See, he is awake!" Mikan seemed proud of her vocal feat.

"Even the dead couldn't sleep through that." I glared at her.

"The doctor says they caught the infection just in time." Ruka said. "You should be fine after you rest up this weekend."

"He just needs some fresh air." Mikan opened a window. Hasn't she heard of air conditioning?

Sumire seemed to hear something from outside. "Reo must be here! I need to go get his autograph." She held up a 8x10 photo of a scrawny twenty something in torn clothing.

"I thought you were only a fan of Ruka and Natsume?" Mikan grinned at Sumire.

"It's ... for my brother. He's a big fan of Reo's. And anyway I wouldn't do what you did."

"But I didn't do anything wrong!" Mikan said.

"Stop it!" I held out a candle sized flame on my index finger. "Get out of here and let me rest, or I'll burn you all."

Mikan leaned over me and blew out the flame. "I wish you wouldn't be like that. Now let's let Mr. Grumpy rest. So Sumire, is this Reo famous?"

"What, you've never heard of Reo?"

After they left I lay back and slept for a while.

I woke up with an unfamiliar voice speaking in my ear. "Listen to my voice. Listen only to my voice."

There was some sort of compulsion behind the words, but I fought that with my training and looked at the man talking to me. It was Reo.

"No, stop that!" Mikan ran up and grabbed Reo's arm. What was she doing, hiding in my hospital room?

Reo turned to her. "Go to sleep, little girl."

That didn't stop her at all of course. With his attention divided I could feel my strength returning. Just a moment more and I'd be able to burn him.

A man teleported in behind Mikan and put a cloth over her mouth. She struggled for a moment then passed out.

I had started to build a flame, but Reo heard the crackle and turned back towards me. "Go to sleep, Natsume."

If you hurt her you'll burn, slowly. I slumped back into darkness.

I awoke to the sound of gentle sobbing. I seemed to be tied up hand and foot. I opened my eyes and looked into Mikan's. She seemed to be tied up also. We were on the floor in a corner of a warehouse.

"Natsume! You're alive!"

"Be quiet. Why shouldn't I be alive?"

"When I woke up, I tried to see your Alice and I couldn't. What's wrong with my power?"

I tried to burn the ropes binding my hands without effect. "They've got some sort of barrier up, Stupid."

Mikan's eyes unfocused, and then she closed them as she concentrated.

"Boss, the kids seem to be awake now." One of Reo's thugs gestured towards us with his gun.

"It's that man." Mikan nodded towards the man with the gun and he collapsed to his knees with his palms pressed to his forehead.

"Shidou, what is it?" Reo asked.

"It's that girl, she's blocking my barrier."

"If she's able to do that at such a young age, then she's even more valuable than the Black Cat. We picked up an extra bonus today, boys. Go to sleep, you two kids."

I felt no compulsion from Reo's Alice so I used my fire to burn through the ropes binding my arms together and reached over to untie Mikan's arms. Then I lay back down to rest and focus on using my Alice.

She untied her legs then mine as I used my Alice to burn any hand that reached for a gun and to push the thugs away from us.

The teleporter from before shimmered, but didn't move. "I'm being blocked too, boss."

"How can one little girl have so much power?" Reo stared at the flame that danced in front of his face as he pressed his back against the wall.

"You lose Reo. No-star, let's go find a phone and tell the Academy that they can come collect these jerks."

"Ok." She helped me to my feet.

We walked past them all as I leaned on her for support with my left arm over her shoulders. Without their Alices they were no match for mine, even in my weakened state.

We were almost to the door when a shot was fired. Mikan cried out and collapsed under me.

As I tumbled to the floor next to her, I knew in a flash what I had done wrong. Mikan had nullified Shidou's barrier Alice, but I had failed to neutralize him. I had killed her. Damn him. Damn them all. With the last of my strength I lashed out with my power and the warehouse erupted in flames.

There was an explosion. I was thrown through the air, and sent falling into darkness. It all seemed so peaceful, not at all like how I had expected to die.


	6. Chapter 6

[Alice Academy][fanfic] A Clockwork Tangerine, Chapter 6.

By Henry J. Cobb

The Gakuen Alice characters and situations are the creation of Higuchi Tachibana and this parody is not intended to cause any damage to that property.

Chapter six: A walk in the dark.

No dreams, no flames, no pain, just quiet darkness. It was bliss. I could have stayed there forever, however...

"Natsume! Natsume! Natsume!"

It couldn't be hell, Mikan sounded as cheerful as always, or maybe that was my fate. I've done some awful things, but surely nothing bad enough to deserve having to put up with that for all eternity. Maybe if I just lie here quietly, she'll get bored and wander off?

"Is this how you wake him up every morning?" Hotaru asked.

"No, I don't sleep over with Natsume every night."

That's it. I opened my eyes and looked at Mikan. "Is there anything else you'd care to confess to before you die?"

"Good morning Natsume." Mikan was standing by my hospital bed. Standing next to her were Hotaru, Ruka and Yuu. All four of them had their left arms in slings, but Mikan had a bandage around her head also.

I suppose it could have been the same hospital room at the Academy. I certainly hadn't been away from it for long. As I looked around I spotted a single star on Mikan's lapel. I suppose I must have been almost happy that she was still alive after the mistake I had made. "So how's your arm, One-star?"

"When I was shot it felt all torn up, but when I woke up there wasn't even a scratch. It still hurts a bit though."

"Yeah, they're good at that. It seems that you have some very good friends. Anybody else with their arm in a sling?"

"No, just these three. They say they all tripped on a tangerine peel."

"You're an idiot. Now go away. I don't need you bothering me while I'm trying to rest. But hey Hotaru, how's your brother doing?"

"He seems to be doing well."

"Hotaru, you have a brother?" Mikan put her right hand on Hotaru's left shoulder, but drew back when Hotaru winced.

"From the looks of things he's the one who healed you, One-star."

"Oh!" Yuu smacked his right palm against his own forehead. "How could I have not seen it? Principal Imai and Hotaru Imai. And they look so much alike too."

"Hotaru's brother is the school Principal?" Mikan asked Yuu.

"No, my brother is the student representative of the 12th grade class, like Yuu is the student representative of our 5th grade class and Natsume is the student representative for the Elementary Branch. If you will all excuse me, I too need to rest." Hotaru left and the rest followed her out.

When I was released the next day the four of them were waiting, but I noted that while Mikan still had her head bandaged, only she and Hotaru still had their arms in slings. "It looks like somebody gave a little more."

Ruka blushed and turned away. "I've got to get ready for a play."

"I'm sorry Mikan." Yuu said to her. "but Ruka and I gave it all we could. I felt like throwing up and passing out, but Hotaru kept on going. She'd howl out every time, sob and shake uncontrollably, then she'd put her arm out again and say 'More please' and he kept doing it. She wouldn't stop until there wasn't a scar left."

"Somebody hurt Hotaru?" Mikan asked him.

"You did dummy." I turned to Hotaru. "Need a hand setting up your booth?"

"Fine." She turned away and started walking. "Just don't bother me with your sympathy."

Mikan ran up to her. "Did I do something that hurt you? I'm sorry."

"I said don't bother me, Stupid."

I caught up with Mikan as she dropped two steps behind Hotaru. "I wouldn't have done that." I said. "not for anyone alive. So One-star, I thought you had this great idea for a Special Ability Alice event?"

"Oh, they're doing it, but I'm not allowed up on my flying carpet with my arm like this. They didn't seem to have much business when I checked this morning."

At her booth Hotaru handed Mikan a list. "Here are the prices for all of the items. If you make a mistake, I'll demand it out of your allowance, no matter how long it takes. Natsume, here's something I need somebody with two hands to operate."

Hotaru lead me to a field behind her booth with a fenced in area in front of a stand of bleachers. "I need you to move these chicken walkers into the arena. Spread them out around the edges, facing the center. I'd use my remote, but I need to explain to the investors why I can't demonstrate Pigbird for them."

When I got back to the sales booth, Mikan was trying to reach a box on the top of the shelf at the back. "Natsume, can you open up that box of ladybug lights, I just sold the last one at the counter."

I nodded, as I didn't have much else to do at that moment.

"Oh, it's Bunny Boy and Raccoon Girl." Mikan turned back to the counter.

"I am not a raccoon, you stupid, stupid girl." Sumire said from just out of my line of sight. "Can't you see that this is a Cheshire Cat costume?"

"Hi Mikan, we were just in a play." Ruka said.

"Oh, what was it about?" Mikan asked.

"Have you never read a book?" Sumire asked her, then saw me as I brought the box to the counter. "Natsume, why are you helping Hotaru?"

"She helped patch up my pet here." I patted Mikan on the head. "So I owe her one."

"That reminds me." Sumire turned back to Mikan. "You hurt my Ruka. He looked so sad with his arm in a sling, but he took it so bravely."

"Thanks Ruka, One-star here took that bullet for me. You too Yuu." I nodded at our class rep as he walked up.

"Oh Natsume, if I had been there instead of this stupid girl I would have disarmed them all with my Alice." Sumire made clawing motions with her hands, without transforming.

"Why didn't you follow me when I ran to save Natsume?" Mikan asked her.

"All you did was get captured, but I did the right thing and went and told the teachers so they were able to track Natsume when that barrier went down."

"Close down the booth." Hotaru walked up. "It's time for the chicken match. Ruka, you can help Mikan sell tickets while Natsume shows the contestants how to pilot the walkers."

"Don't order Ruka and Natsume around like that."

"Can it, Raccoon Girl. She's earned that much credit with me." I shut the front of the booth then followed Hotaru.

"I am not a raccoon!"

After the contestants were seated in the chickens, I joined the group up in the stands.

Mikan asked Yuu. "Weren't you running something in the latent area?"

"A haunted house, but I'm taking a break right now. Would you like to see it later?"

"Oh that sounds great. Can we go, Natsume?"

"No."

"What, are you chicken?"

"No, it's a waste of time. Yuu never projects really frightening illusions."

"I offer a full refund if you're not really frightened." Yuu grinned evilly.

At Hotaru's signal, the match started and the contestants ran the chickens around the arena trying to snatch flag helmets off each other's heads.

One of the chickens spread its wings and started to fly around the ring with the boy inside using his height advantage to snatch up a few flags.

"That's cheating!" Mikan clinched her right fist at the flying chicken and it fell out of the air. "Oh no! That boy, is he ok?" She hopped into the ring and ran towards the downed bird.

"This should not have happened. I did not build any flight abilities into these chickens." Hotaru pressed a button on a remote and all of the mechanical chickens stopped moving.

Mikan helped a kindergarten student out of the downed bird, but he didn't seemed to be injured.

"Mikan!." Hotaru ran up to her. "I told you to only sell tickets to group-B elementary students. That's grades 4 to 6 if you've forgotten."

"But I didn't sell this boy a ticket."

"Ah, that's my fault." A sixth grade boy walked up. "My brother wanted to try the chicken race out so I gave him my ticket."

"What is going on here?" Syuuichi Sakurano, twelfth grade student and the Executive Student Representative, walked up with Subaru Imai, Hotaru's older brother and student representative for the twelfth grade, and two highschool girls who I think I've seen following Syuuichi around before.

"Miss Sakura and that kid used their Alices and caused an accident during Miss Imai's competition." I said.

"So this is Mikan Sakura." Syuuichi turned to Subaru. "Make a full report and bring it to the meeting today." then he walked off with the two highschool girls following.

Subaru questioned almost everybody there but me and Yuu, and carefully wrote down their statements. "Miss Sakura and Miss Imai, please attend the Student Representatives meeting this afternoon. In the meantime, Miss Imai's shop is suspended pending the results of the investigation and neither of you two are to use your Alices."

"This is serious." Yuu adjusted his glasses. "If they had just wanted to punish somebody they would have done it. They must want a recommendation."

"No, Hotaru shouldn't be punished. She didn't do anything wrong."

"I don't think Hotaru's the one in trouble." Sumire pointed at Mikan's lapel. "A Student Representatives' recommendation can call for a change in a student's status. You could lose that one star. Hey Ruka, let's go try out Yuu's haunted house."

Ruka looked towards Mikan, but I turned her towards me with a hand on her right shoulder. "Let's close up here then I'll treat you two girls to lunch."

Hotaru shrugged. "Fine, as long as you're treating."

Mikan walked between Hotaru and me on the way to the food court in the Technical section and asked me. "Who was that guy that asked all those questions?"

"Subaru Imai, Hotaru's older brother."

"He sure didn't act like a brother when he was questioning Hotaru."

"The first time I met my brother was in the hospital when he came to heal your arm, but I knew all about his Alice."

"What is his Alice?"

"He heals people by inflicting pain on others."

"Then the person who tortured you was your own brother?"

"She asked for it." I interrupted.

Hotaru gave me a really sour look when Mikan turned to me.

Then Mikan turned back to her. "How could you have not met your own brother?"

"He was taken by the Academy before I was born. My mother cried the day she discovered that I was an Alice also. My parents kept moving around to avoid the Academy, never staying in one place for more than a few months."

"But you lived in our neighborhood for almost two years."

"I found somebody who was important to me and my parents agreed that it was important that I stay, as long as I could."

"But not one of your ten most important people?" Mikan grinned at some joke I didn't get.

"I think I can name the person who's the one hundred most important people to my brother."

We got a table outside the cafe where Anna was working during the festival. Hotaru placed a really big order, but I didn't mind. Unlike most of the other students I don't have anybody to send gifts to and I get bonuses on top of the special star allowance.

As we were waiting for Anna's special dessert, Shizune Yamanouchi walked up. "Natsume, can I speak with you for a moment?"

"It's a free country, except for this prison." I remained seated.

"Over there, please?"

"OK, but only one moment." I got up and followed her.

"So, that's Mikan Sakura? She's such a plain girl, and I hear she's a little slow. You could do so much better."

"Yes, but she has such a wonderful Alice. Is that all you wanted to say to me, Miss Yamanouchi?"

"Natsume, there's no need for you to be so formal with me. We're both Branch level Representatives after all." She leaned over and whispered in my ear. "I heard that the fix is in for your Miss Sakura at the meeting today. You have my vote if you need it, but I doubt it will help."

"Thanks, I figured as much." I walked to the table and didn't look back.

"Who was that?" Mikan asked.

"Miss Yamanouchi, Highschool Branch Representative, she had a question about the meeting today."

"Oh, that." Mikan cut a slice from the pie and put it on a plate.

Hotaru swatted Mikan's hand away before she could put her fork in the slice. "Anna!"

"What?" Anna looked up from where she was taking the order of a couple of students.

"There is a bug in this pie!" Hotaru pointed at some sort of slug creature in the pie and it grinned back at her. "I demand a refund!"

The two students whose order Anna was about to take shared a glance, then stood up and walked away.

"But I baked that pie myself!" Anna seemed almost on the verge of tears.

"Anna." Milk, an older cooking Alice came out of the cafe. "did you see that blue package of flour that I was going to throw out because it expired last year?"

Anna turned to Milk and started sobbing. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean any harm!"

The cafe emptied out in a flash.

"Hotaru, that's too cruel." Mikan said to her friend. "You could have just told Anna that there was a problem with the pie."

"So she's a little embarrassed now. It's better than you getting sick from eating that garbage. When people misuse their Alices, people get hurt. It's a lesson she's going to have to learn before she leaves the Academy."

We left the now closed cafe and walked through the Latent Abilities section, on the way to the meeting.

"Don't read my mind." Mikan said, without looking up from the path.

"But, I'm the mirror of truth." Yome Kokoro complained. "It's my booth. OK, be that way, I'll just read somebody else's."

"Don't read Natsume's either!" Mikan blushed.

"Don't worry, I've never gotten through his training."

As we walked along, Hotaru asked Mikan. "What were you afraid of his reading in Natsume's mind?"

"N - nothing important. Say Natsume, how could you train to avoid mind reading, when that's not your Alice?"

"There's special training for certain students."

At the Student Representatives meeting most of the other twelve Representatives were surprised to see me attend. There were nine Grade Representatives, one for each of the 4th to 12th grades, such as Yuu, three Branch Representatives, including Shizune and myself and Syuuichi as the top student for the entire school.

Subaru related the events at the chicken match, Yuu and I added our observations and then Subaru finished up. "As for the case of Miss Imai, I must abstain as it concerns my sister."

"It appears to me that Miss Imai took reasonable precautions and the events that occurred were outside of her control or ability to predict." Syuuichi said and took a vote, all unanimously in favor, except for Subaru's abstention.

"And as for Miss Sakura." Subaru looked at Mikan. "I recommend that as the reckless use of her power endangered another student's life, that her status should be altered. While she was understandably miscategorized as a Special Ability Alice, she is actually a Dangerous Ability Alice."

"No." Yuu objected. "Miss Sakura isn't dangerous. Her power can't harm people. All she can do is stop other Alices."

Syuuichi was about to comment but I cut in. "Mr. Tobita, you've seen Miss Sakura drop levitators from a few meters up in the air. Her range is at least ten meters. What would you think would happen if she cut off a flying Alice at that height?"

"She wouldn't do something like that."

"Dangerous abilities are defined by the level of hazard, not intent. And Miss Sakura can't wear Alice control devices. Would you have every levitator and telekinetic in the school limited to a height of one meter and Mr. Nogi forced to stay away from all wild animals?" I risked a quick glance at Mikan and noted the horror on her face as she suddenly realized the potential hazard she was to Ruka.

"No." Yuu looked down at his hands.

"So, do you withdraw your objection to this motion?"

"Yes."

"If there are no other objections?" Syuuichi took the vote, all in agreement, and finally got to me. "And Mr. Hyuuga?"

"Agreed." I started writing.

"So that was your plan." Hotaru glared at me.

"Miss Imai?" I asked.

"Nothing." She turned away.

"Miss Sakura and Miss Imai, you may leave now while we consider other business. What's this?" Syuuichi looked at the paper I handed him.

"Our recommendation for Miss Sakura. If the rest of you will sign it, I'll take it immediately to the faculty so that we don't have a miscategorized Dangerous Ability Alice wandering around endangering everybody."

"Very well, we'll still have a quorum." All of the representatives signed the paper.

Outside the meeting room, Hotaru reached for Mikan's right hand. "I need to get back to my shop now. Goodbye Mikan."

Mikan watched Hotaru walk away. "What was that about? It's like I'm being sent to my death."

"You are. Welcome to the Dangerous Ability Alices. Come on One-star, you're with me."

"It's not fair. I'm not dangerous. Like Yuu said, my Alice doesn't do anything."

"You have the ability to undo everything. That's very dangerous around here."

"Wait. You called me One-star. You've been calling me One-star all day. You noticed!"

"I'm just surprised that Jinno would change his mind about your star ranking so soon after having your grounding overturned."

"Oh, I didn't get it from Mr. Jinno. It's from Mr. Persona. He's the one who asked me about everything that happened to us while we were kidnaped."

"You really are stupid to be happy about something like that. Now shut up and follow me."

"Hmph!"

Next Chapter: "Dog Show"


	7. Chapter 7

[Alice Academy][fanfic] A Clockwork Tangerine, Chapter 7

By Henry J. Cobb

The Gakuen Alice characters and situations are the creation of Higuchi Tachibana and this parody is not intended to cause any damage to that property.

Chapter seven: Dog show.

"They're all in there, all of the teachers and some people I've never seen." Mikan looked at the closed door to the teacher's lounge then back to her feet.

"How many times do I have to tell you not to use your Alice?"

She looked at me. "I'm sorry Natsume, but I can't help it. Was it like this for you?"

"I knew the Academy was up to no good long before I ever set foot here. It's just a warning for your own good. One of these days you'll go sniffing around with your Alice perception where it doesn't belong and somebody will bite you on the nose."

Mikan reached up to touch her nose. "Why did you betray me like this? Is it because you wanted me to join you on your missions?"

"Don't flatter yourself. You showed how useless you were against Reo, going down after one bullet to the arm."

"You would have just burned your own arm off and kept going, wouldn't you? You're so smug behind your eyes of ice. You've got it all figured out and you think you know when I'll figure it out, don't you? You won't just come out and tell me why you did it. Is it because we're under surveillance here?"

"Yes."

"Well tell me now, because none of the Alices are looking just this moment."

"Not everything is an Alice."

Mikan turned towards the door and it opened.

Persona stepped out and nodded to Mikan. "Miss Sakura, your transfer has been approved. Please report for Dangerous Ability training after the finals. In the meantime feel free to enjoy the festival. Oh, and the Headmaster requests that you respect his privacy in the future."

Mikan followed me out of the building, then asked. "Who's the Headmaster?"

"One of those nose biters."

Some of the girls in our class passed by and Mikan ran up to them then came back and put her arm through mine. "Come on, Ruka's in a play."

We followed along with the crowd to the auditorium, where Mikan read the sign aloud. "The Somatic Players Present Snow White / Sleeping Beauty, what's that about?"

"I don't know." Anna replied, "but Mr. Narumi's directing it so it's got to be weird. Let's go backstage and see if we can see what Ruka's costume looks like."

The girls wandered around the backstage area then Mikan leaned into a dressing room where a student was applying makeup to a blond in a fancy dress. "Excuse me, but do you know where our friend Ruka is?"

"Urk!" It was Ruka in the dress and he kept his back to us.

"Hmm." Hotaru tiptoed up and blew in his ear.

"What did you do that for?" He jumped up.

Hotaru pulled out a flash camera and started to take pictures of him.

"Hey stop that!" Ruka ran after her as she backed away while continuing to take pictures.

"That was Ruka?" Mikan walked after the pair and I hung back a bit.

"Couldn't you see that with your Alice vision?" I frowned at her.

She turned back to me. "There's too many students walking around right now. I'm tuning them out so I can see where I'm going."

"I guess you don't walk while chewing gum either."

Mikan frowned for a moment, then turned and walked away. I waited a few moments, then followed.

When we got to the stage, Sumire looked up from directing some other students doing some set work. "Natsume! You came to see me in the play!" She was still in her school uniform.

I ignored her and looked over to Mikan who was talking with Mr. Narumi.

"I said to stop taking pictures!" Ruka jumped onto the stage, bounced off Yome, and tacked Hotaru. The two of them rolled next to Mikan, who jumped back towards me.

"Now that you've caught me, what do you want to do together?" Hotaru relaxed under Ruka.

"It's nothing like that." Ruka sat up and waved his hands.

A box had been knocked out of Yome's hands and released a dozen balls as it bounced off a support beam. The balls exploded overhead and sprayed a sticky substance over us.

"Eeek!" Somebody grabbed my arm, but I was watching Mikan.

Mikan stood looking back at Hotaru and Ruka as two balls released over her. The contents flowed over her skin and clothes then puddled and froze to the ground. She stepped away leaving two perfect shoe prints.

"What?" Sumire was the girl who had grabbed my left arm. "I can't let go."

"Yeah, sorry about that." Yome was now stuck back to back with another boy.

"Fix this." I waved Mikan over with my free right arm.

"Okay." Mikan placed her hands over Sumire's. "Huh, there's no Alice?"

"No, the Alice is only in the catalyst." Nonoko seemed happily attached to one arm of a senior girl, who was dressed as a prince. "Once that's done it's just an ordinary adhesive. It should wear off in a few hours."

"But the play will be over by then." The senior girl had Anna glued to her other arm. "There's no way I can go on stage like this. Can the rest of you help us out here?"

Every girl in the backstage area except for Mikan turned towards her and blushed. It seemed to be another pheromone Alice, but more selective than Mr. Narumi's.

"Of course we will." Hotaru sounded oddly cheerful. "Right Mikan?"

"I suppose?"

"What's the damage Mr. Narumi?" Hotaru turned to him.

"Well with Sumire and Yuri knocked out we're down a prince and a princess, their backstudies and a few minor characters."

"I'll be the prince and Mikan can be the princess. Now let me see that script." Hotaru sat down and flipped through the pages. "Too conventional, here." Hotaru took out her notepad and started writing. She tore off the first page, handed it to Mr. Narumi and continued on the next.

"My, you do have a talent for writing fairy tales." Mr. Narumi read through the pages as Hotaru continued to write.

"In my field we call them grant proposals."

"Your Alice is so wonderful, Hotaru." Mikan leaned over her friend's shoulder to watch.

"Better start at the beginning." Hotaru pointed at the pages that Mr. Narumi held. "You and Ruka have the first scenes together."

"Me and Ruka? But we're both playing girls?"

"Get Mikan in costume. We're on in ten minutes."

"Let's grab some seats while we can." Sumire pulled me away.

As the other students took their seats in the audience I could hear their whispers.

"That's Natsume, but who's that girl holding his arm?"

"I thought he was with that plain girl? Mikan or something?"

The light dimmed over the audience and a few spotlights started to play over the curtains.

Some students walked out in front of the curtains in animal costumes and took turns saying one line each.

"A long long time ago, a beautiful princess lived in a castle on a hill in a deep forest."

"She never knew what it was like to have a mother, as her mother had died when she was very little."

"Her father the king was always very sad. So she took to walking alone in the woods."

"She needed no guard because she had a special talent with the animals and they would always rush to her defense."

"One morning Snow White sang and danced with her only friends, the creatures of the forest, as usual."

The curtains opened on a forest scene and Ruka sang and danced in his princess dress as the other students in animal costumes hopped around him. How he could go on stage like that was beyond me.

At the end of that crude musical number the students in animal costumes circulated to the front of the stage and resumed their narrative.

"Suddenly the animals scurried out of the way as they heard the footsteps of another person."

Mikan walked onto the stage in a princess dress of a different style than Ruka's.

"Oh, you must be the princess of this kingdom, the one with the special talent for animals, she said to Snow White."

"Snow White asked the other girl why she had come out into the forest."

"I have come to fetch you, the other girl said, for my mother, the queen of the next kingdom, has come to marry your father."

"Then we are to be sisters. Come, let us prepare for the royal wedding."

Ruka took Mikan's hand and they walked offstage.

The curtains closed as the animal players gathered in front.

"As for the name of the other princess..."

"She is known to us now only as the Sleeping Beauty."

The animal players bowed their heads and walked slowly off to both sides.

After another minute the curtains opened again to reveal a throne room.

The animal players gathered at either end of the front of the stage and continued to say just one line each in turn.

"Soon after the wedding, the King's health took a turn for the worse."

"And even though the Queen never left his side, he was soon dead."

Four students dressed as knights walked on stage carrying a casket and laid it in front of the throne.

Mr Narumi walked on stage in a dress with a black veil, followed by Ruka who was being comforted by Mikan.

Mr. Narumi sat on the throne and gestured to the knights as the two princesses sat on the steps leading to the throne.

"Go, the Queen said. Spread the news that I sit as regent for Snow White until a prince may come and marry her."

The four knights walked off the four corners of the stage, then Ruka walked off with Mikan holding his arm.

The stage darkened with just a single spotlight on Mr. Narumi.

"Oh, the Queen said." A second spotlight moved to each animal player as they spoke their lines.

"What will be my fate, once Snow White is married?"

"Much better if I could sit as regent for my own daughter."

"But how to arrange this?"

Mr. Narumi lifted a finger to his cheek.

The lights came back on the stage and Mikan walked on with a picnic basket.

"Where are you going, my daughter?"

"To the woods, the princess responded. For Snow White sits there and weeps for her lost father. I have made her a lunch."

"That is so thoughtful of you, but your sister is so pale. Here, take this apple for her health."

Mikan placed the apple that Mr. Narumi offered into her basket then walked off stage as Mr. Narumi watched.

The curtains closed and then reopened to the forest scene again, with Mikan sitting next to Ruka.

"Here, I have a special treat." the student dressed as a robin said as Mikan pulled out the apple.

"The wolf sniffed at the apple and growled at it." the student dressed as a wolf walked up to Mikan and growled.

"Do not treat my sister so." a student dressed as an owl said as Ruka shooed the wolf away.

"Snow White accepted the apple, took a big bite and fell over, as cold as death itself."

Ruka hammed up his death scene, but Mikan really did look concerned as she knelt over him.

"My mother, she tricked me, the other princess said."

"She ate the rest of the apple and laid down beside her sister. Wishing never to be parted from her in this world or the next."

"As night approached the Queen came out of the castle alone to survey her handiwork."

Mr. Narumi walked out onto stage.

"My daughter! How can this be?"

"She gathered the Sleeping Beauty into her arms and left Snow White behind."

Mr. Narumi, with Mikan in his arms, took one last look at Ruka before leaving the stage.

"Let her rot or be torn apart by the creatures of the forest. I will seek a cure for my own daughter."

The curtains closed and the animal players lined up in front of them to continue their narration.

"This Snow White, the queen announced to the people."

"She has poisoned my daughter and fled."

"Should she ever be seen again, bring her to me for her trial and execution."

"The people of the kingdom looked for their missing princess, but none dared to go to the one spot in the woods that the animals defended so fiercely."

"And so the matter remained for many months."

"Our play continues in ten minutes with Act Two."

The animal players bowed and exited to the sides of the stage.

The lights came back on in the theater and the audience got up.

I remained seated and tried not to consider what I'd do if Sumire insisted on using the facilities with both of her hands glued to my arm.

"What happened to the Prince?" She asked.

"Busy changing into her costume after writing the play." I tried not to let my relief at her distraction show.

After a few minutes Sumire leaned her head against my shoulder.

"Watch it."

"Sorry." She scooted back in her seat.

Finally the lights darkened for the second act.

The animal players walked out in front of the curtains and delivered the narrative as before.

"A prince from a far away land came to the woods."

"He was the seventh son of a minor king which meant that he had a title, but no dominion or chance for one."

"And so he took to wandering incognito."

"He had heard rumors of a sleeping beauty and decided to see her for himself."

The curtains opened to the dimly lit forest scene again and a cloaked figure walked onto the stage under a single spotlight. It was revealed to be Hotaru as she pushed back her hood.

"That isn't Yuri." One of the girls in the audience complained.

"It must be her understudy." a girl sitting next to her said. "I hope she's okay."

"If she's in the hospital we should take flowers to her after the play."

The animal players ignored this interruption and continued their narrative.

"From afar he spotted the sleeping figure of Snow White."

A second spotlight revealed Ruka on a flower bordered dais.

"But as he moved closer, a ferocious bear stood in his way." the student in the bear costume stepped onto the stage between Ruka and Hotaru.

"The prince moved to draw his sword, then stopped."

"The bear stood there watching him, but did not attack."

"The prince backed away and watched."

"Over the next several days, he noted how the various animals watched over Snow White."

"The bear, the fox, the tiger and the owl would each take their turn, then yield to the next."

"The prince's curiosity grew at this. Who was this strange girl who caused mortal enemies to conspire together?"

"He resolved to see her up close for himself."

"One day as the bear's shift started, the prince crept up and tossed a pebble."

"As the bear went to see what the sound could be the prince rushed to the side of the princess."

"Struck by the beauty of this sleeping princess, the prince could not restrain himself."

"He knelt and kissed her on the lips."

Hotaru straddled Ruka and her hood fell forwards over their faces, so we couldn't tell what happened next, but when she sat up again he had a drop of saliva on his lips. I couldn't tell if it was hers or his.

Sumire growled at this.

Ruka coughed, sat up and scurried back to face Hotaru.

"Snow White told the prince her story and he filled in the details he had heard."

"Snow White sang of her sorrow for her fallen sister and the creatures of the forest gathered to listen to her."

Ruka did another musical number, more sombre and slower paced than the first. After he finished, Hotaru stepped forwards and grabbed his hands.

"But if your sister has fallen to the same curse then perhaps the same cure can awaken her, the prince suggested."

"Yes, Snow White agreed. Come my friends, we will storm the castle, rescue my sister and throw out the evil queen."

The pair walked offstage, followed by the animal players. Then the curtains closed and the animal players gathered in front of them.

"As the guards saw the creatures of the forest rushing at them, they fled in blind panic, leaving the gates wide open."

"The pair searched the deserted castle until the found the queen and the Sleeping Beauty in a room at the top of a high tower."

"The queen had selected the room so that the cool breezes might speed her daughter's recovery, and now waited by her side as the animal army climbed, slithered, and flew to the top of the tower."

The curtains opened on a room with Mikan lying on a bed and Mr. Narumi standing behind her. Ruka entered with Hotaru behind him.

"Kill the usurper, Snow White commanded, and the bear rushed to do the deed."

The student in the bear costume growled and charged the bed, flailing his paws at Mikan.

"No, not my sister! Snow White grappled with the bear and in the confusion they fell out the window."

Hotaru looked down out the window Ruka and the bear had exited by then turned back to Mr. Narumi.

"You have slain my love. Breathe no more."

Hotaru drew her sword and stabbed at Mr. Narumi. He crossed his hands over the blade and fell to the ground.

"The prince turned back to Sleeping Beauty, and saw that even though she was horribly injured she did not bleed."

"As long as her life was suspended, she could not die."

"And so he studied the notes of her mother, trying to find a cure that would awaken her, without killing her."

The lights dimmed until a single spotlight shone on Hotaru as she knelt before Mikan, but she was looking directly at me as the curtains closed.

"The play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King."

"What is that gibberish?"

"Nothing." I must have let that slip, but Sumire seemed to be the only one to catch it over the applause of the students.

As the cast gathered on stage for the final bow, Mikan glanced at me, then back to Hotaru as they all joined hands in a line.

"That girl." Sumire crossed her arms. "She stole my big chance to be an actress and then Hotaru rewrote our script to grab all the attention to herself."

"What does the Prince sound like?" I asked Sumire.

"Dashing, bold, commanding."

"And Hotaru?"

"A geeky, mousy little girl."

"That's why she didn't give herself any lines." I stood up.

"Where are you going?"

"The sticky balls have worn off."

"Aren't you going to come to the cast party?"

"Neither of us were in the play."

"I guess this means we have the rest of the night to ourselves then?"

I headed towards the backstage area.

Next Chapter: "Slip the leash"


	8. Chapter 8

[Alice Academy][fanfic] A Clockwork Tangerine, Chapter 8

By Henry J. Cobb

The Gakuen Alice characters and situations are the creation of Higuchi Tachibana and this parody is not intended to cause any damage to that property.

Chapter eight: Slip the leash

The next day started with a big parade, so I slept in.

I was the first person in class that morning. It was just a proforma session to count the inmates, so it fit in with my policy of doing exactly enough to avoid notice.

Ruka came in holding his bunny, set next to me and half the girls in the class pounced and started asking him about the last dance, but he ignored them.

Last year the group had bothered both of us, but I guess that my association with Mikan had marked me as off limits somehow or the Natsume fad had worn off because I didn't have the mind altering power. Ruka's was only supposed to work on animals, but I guess that said something about the type of girls he attracted.

There was one die hard case however.

"Natsume, I ..." Sumire stopped and looked down at my desk when I didn't turn to her.

At that moment Mikan followed Hotaru into the classroom. "Hotaru did you see the elephants and the clowns and, what's that?"

Hotaru looked at the crowd around Ruka, then went to her seat and took out her notebook.

Mikan chatted with Nonoko and Anna then came over to me. "Natsume, you'll be my partner for the Last Dance, right?"

"Hey." Sumire pushed her way in front of Mikan. "I was asking him first."

"Well he's my partner."

"That's got nothing to do with it."

"They don't want us there."

The two girls turned to me.

I looked directly at Mikan. "We Dangerous Ability types don't exist. There's no place for us in a public function."

Sumire turned away and took her seat.

"That's just crazy talk." Mikan paused to think of something else to say, but took her seat as the substitute teacher cleared his throat.

Normally the class wouldn't respect his authority, but because I had been playing along, nobody dared to take it upon themselves to be more disruptive that I was.

He quickly called the roll, told the class about the awards ceremony that afternoon and the ball that would be held that night and made his escape.

After lunch the students made their way to the parade grounds and I headed out into the woods.

"Hey." Mikan tagged along. "Why aren't you going to the awards ceremony?"

"It's only for the four official types of Alices. We don't exist."

"You keep saying that like we Dangerous Ability students are prisoners. We're the ones who get to go out on secret missions. It's because the Academy trusts us more. I got one star for my mission and I can't imagine what you've done to earn a special star class. The Academy must really depend on you and you're always talking them down. Why are you such a grump?"

"You really want to know? Okay, if it'll shut you up I'll let you know." I picked up a branch and set it on fire with my Alice. Then I smothered the flames with my hands, brushed the ash off my palms and showed them to Mikan. "I can't be burned, no matter how hot the flames are. My sister had the same Alice and I saw her badly burned corpse the day before I was brought here. Now tell me how great this school is."

"I, but I saw the burns on your neck when you first came to class wearing that mask. Did blocking your powers make you burn yourself?"

"That isn't it." I turned away.

"Now wait, that doesn't make any sense." Mikan reached for me then turned when somebody else walked up.

"Oh there you are Mikan." It was Mr. Narumi. "I'm sorry that you've had to wait so long for this."

"What? This is grandpa's handwriting."

"Yes, he handed it to me a few days ago."

Mikan sat down and read the letter.

I took advantage of her distraction to wander off. I decided to see just how far she could track me, so I headed towards the Northern Forest.

A half hour later I heard Hotaru's goose skycycle descending towards me. I ignored it.

"Accept Mikan's invitation." Hotaru said.

"Why should I?"

"I might drop you a hint as to her true nature if you show up."

I turned and saw a sly smile on her face, but her eyes were tracing unseen shapes in midair. Then she put her helmet back on and flew off.

Why would she need to use her Alice when talking to me?

I headed back to the dorm.

I found Ruka talking with some squirrels on the way back and told him to "Suit up."

"What?"

"We're going to the dance."

"Are you asking me out?"

"Don't be stupid. Something interesting is going on."

The brown and white boy's outfit for the ball was waiting in my room. After changing, I took one glance in the mirror. If I only had a pointed hat I'd be a lawn gnome.

I found Hotaru brushing out Mikan's hair.

"You're almost perfect." Hotaru whispered in Mikan's ear and then without looking up said to me. "She'll be ready in a moment."

"Natsume! You've come to take me to the ball."

"Only if you're quiet." I nodded to Hotaru, and went to wait outside.

Mikan came out a few minutes later in a white ballerina style dress with small yellow wings attached in back. "Like it?"

"What's with the top?"

"Huh?"

"You seemed fuller in the chest in your princess outfit. Was it padded?"

"Why you... Say, that means you're interested in the way I look."

"Whatever." I walked off.

Mikan ran up and put her arm through mine.

We found Yoichi staring at the wall in his room.

"Auntie Mikan!" He ran up and she knelt down to hug him.

Apparently I was now just that guy with Mikan for almost everybody. Suited me, I'd been running a bit too high profile lately.

Yoichi broke out of Mikan's hug and looked up at her. "You went on a mission and didn't tell me about it."

"Oh, I'm sorry Yo-chan. It all started when Reo kidnapped Natsume and me."

"Kidnapped, really?"

We walked off to the ball with Mikan in the middle holding our hands as she told Yoichi about our excursion.

As the path passed through a dark grove, Persona spoke up from behind a tree. "Dangerous Ability students are not permitted at public functions. Therefore for tonight misters Hyuuga and Hijiri are Latent Ability students while miss Sakura is a Special Ability student."

"Hi Persona!" Yoichi waved with his free hand, but our teacher was already gone.

In the main clearing there were strings of lights suspended between poles around an enormous grail shaped cup. Yuu was struggling with a long pole with a torch held at the end to light it.

I snapped the fingers of my free hand, pointed at the cup for theatrical effect and lit it with my power.

"Thanks Natsume." Yuu folded up the pole and put out the torch. "That dress really suits you Mikan."

"You think so?" Mikan released her grip on Yoichi and my hands and turned around. "So who are you having the last dance with, Yuu?"

"Well I." he held his hand behind his head and blushed.

"Auntie Mikan is dancing with Natsume!" Yoichi grabbed our hands and started to pull us away. "Come on, I'm hungry."

"I'll see you later Yuu." Mikan said over her shoulder.

"Ah, sure."

The buffet spread was quite impressive. I could see why as a foreign investor loaded three huge crabs on a plate then scurried off to a table placed to the side that had a bunch of other foreigners and Japanese tycoons standing around it. Apparently there was too much Alice clutter for Mikan to spot who the obvious center of their attention must be.

I found an empty table towards the other side. Our moment of seclusion didn't last as Anna and Nonoko showed up. "Oh hi Mikan, Natsume." "And look, it's Yo-chan."

"What's the matter, you two?" Mikan asked them.

"Mr. Misaki just turned us down again."

"Why don't one of you two ask Yuu to dance?"

"He's nice and all, but I don't want to be seen leading somebody on who's really interested in somebody else."

"There's a girl Yuu likes?"

"Clueless as always, aren't you Mikan?"

"So Anna, did you make any of this?" I pointed to my plate with a fork.

"No, I've been too busy preparing for the ball."

"Good." I dug in.

"What a cruel thing to say!"

I ignored Mikan and continued to eat.

"Why don't we ask Mr. Misaki again?" "Maybe he's changed his mind." The two girls left.

"Uh, oh!"

"What's the matter Yo-chan?" Mikan bent down to ask him.

"That's the new girl in my class. She's weird. She likes ghosts. She has a sister who's got a ghost Alice and is always bugging me about my ghosts." Yoichi ducked under the table and scurried off.

"Yo-chan's got a girlfriend. That's so cute."

I paused for a moment to reply. "He didn't seem too trilled about it." I looked down at my plate for a moment. Why had my appetite returned these past few weeks? And I'd hardly taken any of the pills either. I suppose that Mikan had just been so anoying that I'd somehow overlooked my own pains. Grateful for my recovery, and unsure of how much longer it would last, I dug in.

After we finished eating, Mikan scanned the crowd then zeroed in on the table with the tycoons crowded around it. "There's Hotaru." She got up and I followed her.

We were halfway to Hotaru's table when Mikan stopped and her eyes seemed to follow an invisible line leading from that table. She turned and followed it.

She stopped in front of a bench at the edge of the woods where Yome sat writing in a notebook.

"Why are you using your Alice on those people?" Mikan leaned over to look at Yome's notebook, but he held it against his chest.

"Go ahead and tell her."

Yome looked up at me then back to Mikan. "I'm reading selected items from the investors that Hotaru tells me to."

"Why would she do that?" Mikan asked him.

"I don't know."

"But you're reading the instructions from her mind?"

"Normally I can't read Hotaru at all. Her mind is all full of math and inventions because of her Alice, and I can't follow any of it. But when she concentrates on just one thing I can pick it up. Like now she's thinking: Mikan, buzz off."

I risked a glance at Hotaru, but she had turned away to actually talk to one of her investors.

"Hmph!" Mikan turned away. "Isn't that just like Hotaru, to run things her own way. Well at least they're not Alices."

Mikan stopped, crossed her hands over her mouth and blanched. Then she ran off.

"What happened to her?" Yome asked.

"I'll deal with it. She's my partner."

I found Mikan a short distance off in the woods.

She stood looking out into the darkness. "What's wrong with me, Natsume?"

"Sit down." I pointed at a bench. "close your eyes and breathe for a bit."

A minute or two later she seemed to calm down a bit.

"Now, are you under the influence of any Alice?"

She concentrated for a moment. "No."

"Are we under surveillance?"

"Yes, Ms. Yamada. Blocked."

"So, what's the problem?"

"What I said, I sounded like Sumire. No, I was worse. She says Alices are special people. The way I said it, it's like non-Alices aren't really people at all." She looked up at me. "What's wrong with me, Natsume?"

"The Academy is winning. You're too strong to force you to do things so they're letting you come around to their way of seeing things on your own. Do you like using your Alice?"

"Yes, I love it. Ever since you opened my eyes, I've seen each Alice like a great painting, only constantly moving and changing, like a waterfall. I can't see non-Alices at all, even when I look right at them. It's like a wall has dropped between me and ordinary people. What's going to happen to me?"

"You'll be the next Persona, only better. You'll never have to threaten your students, because you'll know them inside and out. And when they go out and hurt ordinary people, it won't matter to you, because non-Alices aren't real people after all."

"I don't want that. I shouldn't want that."

"What's the problem then? I've done everything just the way you asked. I've attended class and played by all the rules while you've been running around using your Alice freely. What do you want?"

"I don't know, but I can't go on like this."

"Then let's change things, but for now we need to play by the rules. Blocking Ms. Yamada is very suspicious. Don't do that anymore, just change the subject or something when she's watching. Come on, let's go back to the party before they send the guards after us." I held out my hand and Mikan took it.

When we got back the girls from our class were lining up at the stage.

"Mikan, over here." Hotaru indicated the empty spot in front of herself.

I went over and joined Ruka at the edge of the crowd.

"What happened with Mikan?" He asked me.

"Nothing."

"Next up is Mikan Sakura. Which partner do you choose for the last dance of the night?"

"Natsume Hyuuga."

I went up, bowed and took her hand.

A moment later Hotaru announced Ruka Nogi as her choice. He looked around for an escape then sighed and walked up to her.

Sumire glared at Hotaru then turned around and left the line.

Mikan looked towards Sumire. "Her Alice is growling."

I whispered in Mikan's ear. "I hope you don't believe all the rubbish they say about the last dance."

"What's that?"

"Good."

"Wait, tell me. What's it all about?"

"They say that partners at the last dance will fall in love."

"What's love? I mean I love grandpa and I love Hotaru like a sister and I guess I love you like a brother, if I knew what that was like. You're the one I trust most here."

"You can't. You should not. You must not trust anybody here."

"Where did they get that part about falling in love?"

"I suppose it's all part of the Academy's plan, to get Alices to marry other Alices."

"Why would they bother?"

"It's the entire point of the Academy. Children of two Alices have stronger Alices. They've gotten up to monsters like you and me and still it's not enough."

The music started up and I tried to lead Mikan, but neither of us knew much about dancing.

Hotaru frowned then lead Ruka over and released him. "Mind if I cut in?"

"Sure." Mikan turned to her, but Hotaru took my hands.

"Oh." Mikan turned to Ruka. "I guess we're together then. If you don't mind?"

"N - no, that's ok."

"Don't they make a lovely couple?" Hotaru whispered in my ear while nodding towards Ruka and Mikan. "It's not a bomb you know."

"Oh?"

"This close to Mikan we can speak freely, but she can't hear us. It will not destroy itself. Its primary mission is to defend itself. That's why it hid for years. Only a direct assault against Mikan's mind forced it to reveal itself. Its four stages are to stop, to see, to do and to be. It feeds off other Alices, but it scares her, so she has it sleep. You need to keep pushing her forwards."

"Why should I?"

"The final result will be something wonderful. The end to all of our pains. Here, let me help you give her a little kick." Hotaru released my hands to grab my head and pull me close for a kiss.

Mikan stopped with mouth agape. Ruka took another step then turned to see what she was looking at.

There was a human shriek of outrage that turned into an inhuman roar and everybody stopped dancing.

Couples scrambled out of the way as a figure leapt in accelerating bounds towards us.

It was Sumire, using her Alice, with dog ears, cat's whiskers and claws spread.

Ruka and Mikan dropped each other's hands, pointed at Sumire and shouted "Stop!" in unison.

Sumire landed on all fours and looked at them. Then her animal features faded away. She steeped up out of her crouch and punched Hotaru in the jaw.

Hotaru went down and Sumire stepped towards her.

I grabbed Sumire's left wrist and she turned towards me and swiped the outspread fingers of her right hand across my vest, but without her Alice claws the cloth wasn't even scratched. I grabbed that wrist too, but she pushed me over onto my back with her on top of me.

"It's not fair, it's not fair!" she struggled and bit me on the shoulder, but thankfully with human teeth rather than her Alice derived fangs.

"Mikan, stop it." I pushed Sumire away and lost my grip on her wrists.

"But she's trying to use her Alice!"

"Let her, then Ruka can calm her down." I caught Sumire's wrists again as she batted her hands at me and rolled over her, knocking off one of the wings from her dress.

"Is that all I am to you, a mad dog to be brought under control?" Sumire stopped struggling and lay under me crying.

"That depends. Are you going to act like one or are you ok now?"

Sumire nodded so I got off her and helped her to her feet. Then I caught Mikan's glance and nodded over to where Hotaru was sitting on the ground holding her jaw.

Mr Narumi was running towards us, but the Elementary Branch Headmaster got there first. "What happened here?"

I walked over to him. "Miss Shoda lost control of her Alice then Miss Sakura used her Alice to put Miss Shoda into Alice shock and disobeyed my direct order to stop. Miss Shoda hit Miss Imai while under Alice shock."

"So this is the famous Mikan Sakura." He walked up and studied her face then turned back to me. "Both Miss Sakura and Miss Shoda are reduced to No-star status for seven days, starting tomorrow morning. Also, Mr. Narumi, you are to counsel both of your students on the proper use of their Alices."

Mikan watched him walk away then asked me. "Who was that kid?"

"He's that nosebiter, the Elementary Branch Principal."

"I thought you were the Student Principal for the Elementary Branch?"

"He's the Elementary Branch school Principal. It's his job. He's not a student."

"He creeped me out. Where does he stand on your least favorite people list?"

"He's number two on my I don't want to know anything at all about them list."

"Say, you called me Mikan, for the first time!"

"Sorry, but thanks to you, I was too busy fighting to come up with a clever insult. Next time I'll just shout Hey Stupid and everybody will know who I mean." I turned back towards Sumire, but Mr. Narumi was already sitting with her so I just walked away. The dance was over anyway.

The next morning Mikan came to my table, carrying her No-star breakfast.

"Did you try to get Persona to drop your punishment?" I asked her.

"No, I don't think I want to ask him for anything."

"It wouldn't matter, he's outranked."

"By that little kid?"

"You've been here for months and you still trust appearances? Don't sit here. Go apologize to Hotaru."

"Huh?"

"If you weren't there last night she wouldn't have been hurt."

"I see why Sumire doesn't use her Alice."

"You don't know anything. She used to use her Alice all the time before me and Ruka came here. Mostly to tune out Mr. Narumi I think."

"Why'd she stop?"

"I don't know what happened exactly. You'll have to ask her or Ruka."

"Why are you smiling? You know what happened, don't you?"

"I wasn't there, but the next day Ruka had scratches on his face, the Natsume fan club had become the Natsume and Ruka fan club and she didn't use her Alice anymore."

"Now you know that I'll have to ask him, but that I really shouldn't."

"Consider it part of your punishment. Now go sit with Ruka or Hotaru or even Yuu. I don't care. Just don't sit with me today."

As Mikan walked off I shouted over to Sumire. "Shoda!"

Sumire turned away from the fan club table and brought her tray with her No-star breakfast to my table.

"Have a seat." I pushed a plate of grilled salmon towards her.

She looked down at it. "You know I love fish. Why, after what I did last night?"

"It wasn't your fault. You're just a little girl caught up in a bigger game. Are you ok?"

"Yes." She looked down and started to pick at the fish with her chopsticks. "Thanks for holding back. I'm no match for you with or without Alices."

During classes the teachers told us of the subjects that would be covered on the final exams.

At the start of lunch break Mikan ran up to Hotaru. "If you help me I'm sure that I can get the top student award and go see my grandpa."

"Forget it."

"What?", Mikan turned to me.

"First you're stupid and second Dangerous Ability students don't get to go home again, ever. Go ahead and turn in blank pages on all of your exams and see if they even think about throwing you out of here."

That shut her up and she lagged behind on the way to the dinning hall until suddenly she ran up to me.

I turned, but she ran past and stood between me and a small grove. "You can't take him."

Persona stepped up and addressed me. "It's international, pack for a few days."

"Understood." I turned back towards the dorms.

"But his power hurts him. Don't make him fight for you anymore."

"Mikan." I turned back. "bug off."

"This doesn't concern you little girl." Persona held out his right hand towards Mikan and black dots appeared in midair.

I stepped towards them and readied my power.

Persona's power stopped.

"You tried to burn me." Mikan stepped towards him as the other students backed away. "but it wasn't like Natsume's power. It was more like acid than fire. You can burn Natsume. You were the one who burned Natsume that time. You killed Natsume's sister!"

"You don't know what you're talking about."

"Die!" Mikan pointed towards him.

"Shut up!" Persona looked around him and saw that he was covered with growing black dots. "What have you done!" The black dots grew until they merged and covered him. his scream of pain and rage turned into a high pitched squeal that faded away to nothing. The black dots turned into a black mist that blew away on the breeze, leaving just a small black crater in the ground.

The super fast runner from our class started towards Mikan, but she turned towards him. He tripped and rolled until he hit a tree.

His teleporter girlfriend concentrated for a moment then reopened her eyes and ran to him.

A white fog rose and blanked everything out of sight, then suddenly vanished. As none of the school weather controllers operated that quickly it must have been one of Yuu's illusions.

"Everybody stop it. Stop it at once." Mr. Jinno shouted. "Do not feed The Nullification!"

Hotaru grinned at this, closed her eyes and concentrated.

"Her Alice, it's hurting her." Mikan stepped towards Hotaru.

I grabbed Mikan's hand and pulled her back to face me. "You can't fight everybody at the academy. Let's run for it now."

She followed and we almost got to the west wall before she dropped my hand, stopped and said. "Why are we running? With our two Alices we can beat anybody."

"You don't understand anything."

"Wha-" Mikan held her hands to her head and dropped to her knees. "The walls, they're pressing in on me."

"Say hello to the school's barrier Alice, but I bet she can't take us both on at once." I stepped away from Mikan, built up my power and released it all at once in a huge fireball against the wall. The concussive blast blew a twenty foot breach in the wall.

I picked up Mikan and stepped over the rubble.

She seemed to recover once we were across the street. "What was that?"

"The entire school layout is designed to enhance one Alice. Normally it's spread over the outer walls, but it can strike anywhere inside them. I don't know if it's the Academy's final line of defense, but it's the biggest they've ever used against me."

We ran for a few hours and none of the other Alices showed up. Either Mikan blocked all of their scans or they were afraid to face her one on one.

As we rested in an alleyway I turned to her. "How exactly did you kill Persona?"

"All of his Alice prevention devices were Alice based so I nullified them."

"Why did you kill him?"

"He was evil. He hurt you. I'm sure you've killed a lot of people before for much worse reasons."

"Before you interfered with the Reo mission I hadn't killed anybody. People are afraid of fire so I can make them back off without hurting them."

"Well don't be too sure you've killed anybody then."

"What?"

"Shidou's here. Wait, that's not him. How can that be his Alice?" Mikan walked up to a car and knocked on one of its darkened windows.

A lady in a rather fake looking blond wig rolled down the window. "Yes?"

"Are we related?"

"If you are Mikan Sakura then you're my daughter. Can I hold your hand for a moment?"

"Why?"

"Unlike you, my power to analyze Alices is limited to touch. You've got your father's range."

Mikan held out her hand and the lady grasped it. "Yes, it's you Mikan. Sorry, but I can never be too sure with the tricks the Academy can pull. Get in. You too Natsume."

We got in and Mikan's mom turned the car away from the Academy.

"How?" I asked Mikan.

"She's got Shidou's Barrier Alice, but there's something a little fake about it. Under that she's got another Alice that's closely related to mine."

"When one of Reo's men mentioned that they had you Mikan I came running." Her mom said. "but I only got there in time to take Shidou's Alice just before he died."

"So do you work for Reo's group?" I considered how I might blow the doors of the car open without harming Mikan.

"Not anymore. Reo got a small scratch on his face in that fight and went mad. He killed our boss and took over so I split. What are you two doing outside the Academy today?"

"Mikan killed a teacher with her Alice."

"Which one?"

"Persona." Mikan looked out the window on the suburbs of Tokyo that we were speeding past.

"Oh." Mikan's mother seemed to slump a bit. "I swore I would be the one to avenge your father, but you've beaten me to it."

That night we got a two bed room in a rundown hotel north of Tokyo. I tried to adjust the easy chair to be comfortable to sleep in, but Mikan waved me over.

Her mother shrugged and turned the other way on her bed as Mikan snuggled up next to me on her own.

I put an arm around Mikan and she quickly fell asleep, but I lay there thinking about it for a while. If Hotaru was right and Mikan's Alice did feed on other Alices then this was just her way of adjusting to being away from all of the other Alices at the Academy.

Let her. It didn't seem to hurt any. And if she drained away all of my Alice then I really wouldn't mind at all.

Over the next few weeks we made our way north, changing cars often until one morning outside of Sapporo, Mikan's mother woke us with "We're going back."

"What?" Mikan sat up next to me. "You're turning us in?"

"It's not that." her mother handed her a newspaper. "The Academy has taken your twin sister hostage."

"My what, what, what?"

I looked at the newspaper over Mikan's shoulder and silently read the headline. "Popular Children's Show Canceled. Child Actress Retires to Focus on Her Education."

* * *

And so ends the narration of our boy the fried Hamlet and his little dog, Tangerine.

Next up is an insane tweeny rock goddess with the hammerspace Alice. As befits a deity with the power of creationism, her life has undergone a strange parallel evolution.


	9. Sana's Alice, Chapter one

[Kodocha/Alice Academy/RoD] Sana's AliceBy Henry J. Cobb

Gakuen Alice is the creation of Higuchi Tachibana. Kodomo no Omocha is the creation of Miho Obana. Read or Dream is the creation of Hideyuki Kurata. Ginban Kaleidoscope is the creation of Rei Kaibara. This parody is not intended to cause any damage to these properties.

This is the sequel to another story of mine called A Clockwork Tangerine.

Chapter one: Sana's Last Day

There I was minding my own business, ignoring my hulu-dancing pig alarm clock, when this bat pops up over my head.

"Sana!" Babbit shouted. "You don't want to be late for your last day!"

I bopped him against the wall with a mallet and both Babbit and the mallet vanished. Then I finally opened my eyes to examine my now empty hand. To think, because of a little thing like that my life was now over.

But Babbit was right, I didn't want to be late, not today. I got up, got dressed and gathered my hair into my trademark twin ponytails. Well not a real trademark, lots of girls do their hair this way. Not like Babbit. That was the smartest thing my manager Rei ever did. When I popped Babbit into existence on live TV, Rei made the production crew insert a notice that Babbit was the trademark of Sana Kurata into the credits and he's made me millions by having his little bat face plastered on everything from T-shirts to lunchboxes.

While I sat thinking of Babbit he popped back into existence. Getting hit doesn't really hurt him, but killing me would stop him cold, or so I've been told. I haven't had the chance to test that one out. He was a nose-less white bat with long bunny ears, blue wings and a red heart on his chest. That's the standard, though I do make variations from time to time. I don't know where I got the heart from, maybe it was the Care Bears. I think I really liked them at the time.

"Ahem!" Babbit pointed a wing at the clock.

"I'm late!" I dashed through the dining room, grabbed two slices of toast from my plate and ran for the door.

"I take full responsibility."

"No Mama!" I screeched to a halt, turned to face her and pointed to a spot in midair. "It's his fault!"

Babbit appeared at the space I indicated, pointed a wing at himself and said. "Me?"

"It's my fault for hinting too directly about your Alice in my book." Mama put down her teacup. "A writer with my years of experience should have known better."

"No Mama. I promised I'd keep all of my secrets and I didn't." I swallowed both slices of toast whole, ran up and hugged her.

Maro came down and gathered a few crumbs from my cheek then returned to his usual perch in Mama's hair to eat them.

Mama put one arm around my shoulders and handed me a glass of orange juice with the other hand. "Here, wash that down or you'll choke." then she leaned closely and whispered in my ear. "There is still time to run to your Grandmother's. She is a power onto herself in Kusatsu and neither the Prime Minister nor the Emperor can touch her there."

I chugged down the juice then disentangled myself. "No Mama, I'd still be trapped. The only difference is that you'd be in jail. I'm just worried that when I go I'll leave you all alone."

"Do not worry about me. The terrorists in Hong Kong only killed one of my friends, I have plenty more. No go, all of your friends are waiting to say goodbye."

I nodded and turned for the door.

Babbit waved goodbye to Maro and popped out.

Rei was already sitting in the car. He waited until I had buckled in before starting the engine.

For once I didn't mind his slow driving. It was a day I didn't want to start and couldn't put off. I wiped my eyes and turned to him with my best smile. "So are you moving in with Asako?"

"No, just moving out. We've promised to take things slow until her career takes off."

"With the best manager in the business that shouldn't take long. Just look what you've done for me."

"I've gotten you locked up."

"No Rei, it's not your fault, it's mine. Let's just say that we're going to be seeing other people now. I'd ask you to wait until I get out of the big house, but that would be unfair and selfish. So just send me the wedding photos."

"We'll have them taken by the best." he stopped the car in front of the school.

I got out but didn't see anybody. Was I running that late? Then I looked up at our classroom windows and the class suddenly appeared and rolled paper banners down that read "Jinbo Elementary School loves Sana Kurata".

As I reached the top of the stairs I heard a bang from our classroom and I ran to the door. Akito was sitting at his desk looking cool as a cucumber sandwich, but my desk was five centimeters out of place.

The other students were looking at him but turned to me. "Good morning Sana."

"Good morning everybody!" I picked up my desk and adjusted it back into place.

Babbit popped up next to Akito wearing a tiny policeman's uniform. "Kicking desks in a school zone. You're looking at a mighty hefty fine here buster."

"Leave him alone." I ordered.

"Okay, I'll let you off with just a warning this time." Babbit vanished.

At lunch the other girls gathered around me begging details about my new school. As I hadn't been there yet I could only tell them what I had heard second hand and years out of date.

Akito of course went off to the far corner and sat by himself. Tsuyoshi went to sit next to him and Aya looked back and forth between Tsuyoshi and me.

I picked up my tray.

"Aw Sana." the other girls complained.

"One moment." I put the tray down and closed my eyes. When I reopened them there was a Babbit sitting on the table in front of each girl.

"How did you make so many of them?" Hisae asked.

"She's been practicing." The Babbits all said in unison then each began a separate conversation with the girl they had been placed in front of.

With the other girls distracted, Aya followed me to our table for two pairs.

I took the seat directly across from Akito. "You are going to the party."

"Why should I? What's the point?"

"You're going if I have to knock you over the head with a mallet and drag you there. You can be conscientious or unconscious, your choice."

Another Babbit popped up over my shoulder. "I think you mean conscious or unconscious."

"I said what I meant."

"Aren't you at your limit Sana?" Tsuyoshi looked back at where all of the other students had gathered to talk to the other Babbits.

"Not hardly. I've been saving my talking Babbit swarm for a special occasion so the nobility of it wouldn't wear off before I needed it."

"Ah my queen. I think you mean novelty, but we bats of the round table will always be at your royal command."

"I once tried to find out how many Babbits I could make, but gave up when I lost count."

"There were one hundred and forty four of us at the time."

"That sounds kinda gross."

"Exactly." Babbit responded to Aya.

"Each of those flying fleabags has to count for an IQ of at least one, so why aren't your grades better?"

I grabbed the Babbit from over my shoulder and twisted it until it popped then showed Akito my clean hands. "No blood means no fleas. It kind of bugs me at times when Babbit seems to be smarter than me, when I'm the one thinking him into existence."

"Ah ha!" Babbit popped up again. "So you do admit that I'm the better part of you. If only Descartes could have met you Sana."

"Who?"

"Read a book. Start with one, any one."

"Well, I think I do okay, balancing school with the show and my other acting work."

"So does this mean that you'll be able to keep up with the other students at your new genius school now that you won't have those other distractions?"

"It's not about genius!" Then I noticed that Akito had finished his lunch before asking his question and was taking his tray away. I quickly shoveled down my lunch with both hands and followed him.

At the end of the school day I stood up, turned around, put one foot on top of my desk and shouted out. "Gentlemen and ladies sink your watches! In thirty minutes the party starts at my house."

Babbit popped up. "She means synchronize."

"Attendance is monitory. All Sanas must go!"

"You mean mandatory obviously, but are you talking about yours or theirs?"

"Both!" I looked around for Akito, but he had already escaped while I was talking with Babbit so I dashed off to prepare.

Rei was waiting in the car outside.

"Rei!" I hopped in through the open window. "Who's handling the party preparations?"

"Oh it's being taken care of."

"Sana, you're setting a bad example for your fans."

I ignored the Babbit that had popped up behind me. "Drive drive drive, we've got no time!"

At the house I found Zenjiro and Hiroshi working the grill while Asako and Grandpa were setting out the tables, which meant that only one person could be supervising the production.

"Grandmama!" I ran up and hugged her so hard that she skidded back half a meter on her skates.

"Hello Sana, I wish you'd reconsider."

"About the inn? But I already said I'd look after it someday, when I'm ready."

"Yes, you just need to be cured of that little tengu first."

"Tengu?" Babbit popped up.

"Oh I exercise him every day." I summoned up a Gohei and waved it in front of him. "Begone evil spirit!"

Babbit responded to this by doing jumping jacks in midair.

"Huh?"

"You said you were going to exercise me."

"Go away." I banished Babbit then tossed the Gohei into the air where it vanished with a pop.

Grandmama jumped back a bit at this then continued. "It's that school you're going to. I've read up on it a bit and it's full of the children of extremely rich families, some from abroad. If you married into a family like that you wouldn't have time to devote to the old family inn. So I wish you'd reconsider going there."

"Oh the last thing I want is to go to a school with a bunch of stuck up kids."

"Then it's that daughter of mine, she's making you go there?"

"No Grandmama, Mama's done everything she could, but the government says I have to go."

"Back in my day we treated conditions like yours with Shinto, not fancy schools. If only you'd marry an ordinary boy like that Hayama kid. Speaking of which, where is he?"

"Oh, I'm sure he'll be at the party. And I need to make sure that this last party is going to be perfect, starting with the food."

"Hi Sana!" Both Zenjiro and Hiroshi were wearing Kiss the Chef aprons.

"So are we going to film one last episode of Child's Toy today?"

"I begged them Sana." Zenjiro put on his best bucktoothed puppy eyed look. "but they said that the show was canceled with immediate effect."

"And just when our ratings were starting to improve. I feel sorry, leaving you two in the larch like this."

"You mean lurch. Larch is a kind of tree."

I waved off Babbitt. "I guess I should have let you know about this years ago, so you could have gotten a costar who wasn't an undercover fugitive."

"No Sana, I'm glad they're canceling the show. You defined Child's Toy and I can't even imagine what it would have been like without you. But don't worry about Hiroshi and me, we're starting a cooking show for beginners next week."

"Just starting ... So you don't anything about cooking yet?"

"Oh, I know a lot about food." Hiroshi waved his spatula.

"That's obvious." Babbit pointed at Hiroshi's well rounded figure.

"One more word and I'll go get a barrel of thumbtacks."

"No, Babbit's right. I had to learn to cook for myself and I kinda overdid it. I envy you Sana, with your ability to eat all you like and still stay so thin."

"I'm too thin. It's just that I can't keep up with all of Babbit's fluttering around. Eating for two is harder than it looks."

"Well don't worry, I'll get Zenjiro up to speed on cooking in no time. By the way, aren't those steaks a little well done already?"

"No! My precious meat meat meat!" I summoned up a pair of Babbit logo oven mittens and grabbed the steaks, then having no place to put them, ate them all.

The mittens transformed into Babbits and flew off a bit going "Ow ow ow!" then popped.

"Well, we've got plenty more." Hiroshi opened an icebox and started to load up the grill. "Look some of your friends are here."

I turned around, waved to Tsuyoshi and Aya then walked over to them. "Hey you two lovebirds are early. Did your watches sink?"

"Hi Sana." "No, we wanted to come by and see if you needed any help."

"Why no, my dear Washington." I summoned up a pipe, Deerstalker hat and a matching cloak. "Though you have been a great help on previous cases, I believe we have this foot well at play already."

"It's Watson and the game's afoot."

I blew bubbles out of the pipe while Babbit corrected me then took the pipe out and continued to Tsuyoshi. "But can you help me with the case of the missing Akito."

"Oh, I'm sure he wouldn't miss this party for anything."

My classmates from both my actual class at Jinbo and my fictional class on Child's Toy arrived and I introduced the two groups, along with some of the other actors I had worked with.

Finally with everybody seated at the tables I took to the stage. "Give me one moment please." I closed my eyes and imagined a full band of Babbits behind me, each with a different instrument. Then I opened my eyes and started to sing.

Everybody seemed to be delighted at the sight, except for Grandmama. I didn't let that stop me. If she really loved me, she'd accept me for what I was. I was an Alice and proud of it, but I didn't let my multiple personality power go to my head.

I was really grooving and the Babbit band didn't miss a beat as I skipped amongst my top songs. I didn't have time left to sing very many complete songs so I just mixed them together. At first I focused on Mama, who was recording my final concert on video, but soon my eye wandered as I looked for him.

Finally the Hayama car pulled up.

I stopped the music. "Excuse me please." and left the Babbit band to play instrumentals while I ran down to the car.

Natsumi got out of the car and dragged her little brother out by the arm. "Here." she shoved Akito towards me. "Just pack this in your baggage. He's been a real pain ever since he heard about it."

"I considered it, but he's over my baggage allowance."

"Baggage allowance? Are you going on an airline trip or to a boarding school twenty kilometers from here?"

"It's a strange school. Where's your father going?"

"He just needs to find a parking space. He'll be right back."

"In the meantime let's go someplace private." I tugged on Akito's arm.

"Do I have a choice?"

"Nope."

"Have fun you two." Natsumi went to join the crowd.

Mama followed us, but I glared at her, so she turned off the camera and went inside the house.

I dragged Akito behind the house then turned to him. "Go ahead, you can give me one last goodbye kiss."

"I won't bother."

"What!"

"It won't take your new genius school long to figure out what a big mistake they've made. You'll flunk out by tomorrow."

"The Alice Academy isn't about genius. Well if you won't, I will." I grabbed him and gave him a really intense hickey on the neck.

"Ow!" He backed off and felt his neck with his hand. "What did you do that for?"

"Akito Hayama, let my mark be your warning. If you so much as look at another girl while I'm gone I'll find out about it and send Babbit after her. It'll be the same as if you bored her into a coma yourself!"

At this Babbit popped up. "Me, boring?"

Akito grabbed me and hugged me really tight, turned away, raised his hood over his head and said. "Goodbye weirdo." then walked off.

"Hold it buddy, don't think you're getting off so easy." Babbit flew in front of him. "Akito, you, you're..."

Akito karate chopped him.

Babbit popped out then popped up next to my shoulder. "He's crying."

I pointed at Babbit. "You horrible reptile! You made Akito cry."

"Me? I'm not the one who bit him, but I think he'll be wearing my mark long after yours has faded."

"What do you mean?"

"He's wearing a Babbit hoodie."

"Oh." I hadn't noticed, but then it wasn't anything special. Akito was always wearing Babbit logo clothes as far back as I could remember. Even before he kissed me, before I blackmailed him, before we started our duel, from the first day I met him he had been wearing my logo. He had been a fan all along. I hadn't beaten him, he'd let me win. "I'm such an idiot."

"Well that's obvious. Both bats and rabbits are mammals, so any hypothetical cross between them would-"

I dashed past Babbit. "No, I've got to go apologize, for everything."

Babbit followed. "It's too late for that, your ride's here."

That black limo had stopped in front of our house.

Mr Narumi got out in a black suit and for a moment I half expected him to use some strange Alice power to make everybody forget that they'd ever heard of Sana Kurata, but he just walked up and said. "Sana, are you ready to go now?"

"I just need to grab my bags." I opened our front door.

"I'll give you a hand with that."

"Wait here." I shut the door in his face. Let him explain to everybody out there why it was so important that he take me away like this.

I lugged two bags from my room. Too little to hold a lifetime's worth of stuff, but a bit heavy to carry by my own.

Mama was waiting at my doorway, in her minicar, which now had a luggage rack in back. "Need help with those?"

"Thanks Mama." I loaded my bags on then walked beside her.

She and Maro were dressed in simple black, like they were attending a funeral.

I wasn't going to let this be an unhappy moment. "Well maybe the book didn't work out so well. Let this be our plan B. If my birth mother was an Alice then the Academy should be the best place to go look for clues as to what happened to her. But you will always be my one true Mama."

"And you will always be my daughter."

"I'll write every day. If you don't get my letters you'll know that something nasty's happened to me."

"When that day comes I shall storm the gates myself."

"Thanks for everything, I'll see you soon." Not likely I thought, but we both knew that.

Mama helped me unload the bags and then drove off.

I opened the door and pointed at my bags. "Here."

Mr. Narumi lifted them effortlessly. Even in that suit he looked like a reject from a boy band with his earrings and long blond hair.

Everybody was waiting along our walkway and they all wished me well.

As Mr. Narumi loaded my bags into the back of the limo, the Babbit band finished playing and floated in place silently.

"Just time for one final magic trick." I imagined a top hat on my head, took it off and showed that it was empty. Then I had the Babbits all fly into the hat and vanish. I put the hat back on and bowed. The hat fell off my head and vanished before hitting the ground.

I waved to the crowd's applause. "Goodbye everybody." Then I turned and entered the limo.

Mr. Narumi closed the door behind me then walked around and entered on the other side.

At that point the limo started up. I looked back at everybody then faced forwards and noticed that there was an opaque window between us and the driver. Mr. Narumi and I were all alone behind the dark windows of the limo.

"That was an impressive display back there, but hard to reconcile as a simple magic trick."

"So? Everybody back there knows that I'm an Alice and they all accept it."

"But there are some people who will refuse to accept you as an Alice, out of ignorance, fear or superstition. How can you lead an ordinary life if you must always fear the people who will seek to do you harm because of what you are?"

Grandmama had been more than just stubborn back there, she had been frightened. What would it have been like, having to live under her for years as she sought a cure? "It's too late for me to live a normal life anymore, I'm too famous. And as for keeping my Alice a secret, well it's been on TV for almost two years."

"If people believed anything they saw on television then we would have picked you up that first day."

"Well if I haven't blown your little secret yet then I'm obviously no danger so you can just take me back and forget about me."

"I wish it were that simple, but I'm afraid that we have good reasons for insisting that all Alices attend, until they have grown up and fully mastered their powers. It's for their own well being and the safety of others. But I must say that I'm impressed by your level of control. Is it all self taught?"

"There was a friend of my mother." Why was I telling him this?. "But that was years ago."

"Then don't you think it's about time you received formal training from people who understand Alices?"

"I suppose so..." I found myself melting under the friendly gaze of his big violet eyes and turned away. I noticed that there was no control to lower my window. I felt hot, flushed and out of breath. I closed my eyes and tried to calm down. "So what's this Alice Academy like?"

"Oh there's no place else quite like it anywhere in the world. In some respects we're just a larger than usual boarding school that covers prekindergarten to high school, but we are very selective about the students we admit. Like you most of them appear perfectly normal, but they all have extraordinary powers."

"Like mine?"

"Your power is clearly above average, but the full extent of it is something that you will need to explore with our help."

"I just summon up a small smart alex bat. How could you have a power less than that?"

"It's the breadth of your abilities rather your depth in any one area that is so interesting. Perhaps it would be best if I described the common types of Alices we have at our school. The most common are the Latent Ability Alices, these are the standard Psi powers you read about like telekinesis, teleportation, remote viewing or hearing, but each student tends to only be able to do one of these things. For example there is a Latent Ability student in your class with the ability to project illusions that are seen by everybody in an area, but he doesn't simulate touch and his illusions don't allow him to perceive things where there is no human to perceive them."

"But Babbit can go fetch things from rooms where there isn't anybody watching." Why hadn't he popped up at the mention of his name? Why was he hiding?

"Exactly, so your powers are too broad to fit as a Latent Ability Alice. Another group is the Somatic Ability Alices. These students alter their own bodies or minds for things like super speed running, stretching, breathing underwater and the like. Do you change your own body Sana?"

"Not that I'm aware of."

"Then you don't fit into that category either. Another common group are the Technical Ability Alices. These students are able to change the things they work with for unusual effects. In your class there is a girl with the Cooking Alice. She's made dancing cookies and singing cakes. There's another with the Alchemy Alice who is able to mix potions with strange effects and another who is able to invent all sorts of strange things, but none of these simply create things out of thin air and animate them and their creations tend not to be under the direct control of their Alices once set into motion. So you don't fit under that category either."

"So what type do I have?"

"The closest thing we have to your Alice is a girl in the middle school who can create dozens of copies of herself, but these are all identical to herself instead of being something different. She and you fall under the Special Ability Alice category, which is just our way of saying that we really don't understand this category very well. Each Special Ability Alice tends to be fairly unique."

"I'm used to being something of an oddball, so its no big deal." Why did I feel it when he said my class. It was like I belonged at this place I'd never been.

"But in recognition of your obvious power we're assigning you two stars."

"Two stars?"

"It's only provisional at the moment. Your grades at your previous school don't really support it, but I sure that if you put a serious effort into your studies you can keep it up. Can you do that for me Sana?"

"Yes." I looked up into his beautiful eyes again and felt like melting into my seat.

"And here is your ID card." He handed me a thin wallet. "You must remember to always carry it with you when you are outside your room. Can you promise me that Sana?"

"Yes, of course." I opened it up and it had a photo of me above my basic details, name, age, weight, blood type, birthday, two stars, Special Ability Elementary Student Class-B, and so on. "I've never seen this outfit before."

"That's our school uniform for Elementary School students. Our students come from a lot of different family backgrounds, but we want our students to focus on themselves and their own abilities rather than how rich their families are. For the same reason we assign allowances in Rabbits based on star class, rather than using outside money."

"Yeah, I've had some problems at my old school, because I'm so much richer than the rest of the class put together."

"So you must always wear your official school uniform when you are out in public at the school, except for special occasions."

"Yes, no problem."

"Well, here we are."

"We're where?"

"At your dorm, let me show you to your room."

I followed Mr. Narumi as he took out my luggage and went into a four story building and then up one flight of stairs.

"Here's your room."

I followed him in and looked around, it was definitely smaller than my room back home.

"Why don't you get changed into your school uniform." he indicated that unfamiliar outfit, that I somehow had been wearing for that photo, laid out on the bed. "I'll be waiting outside and then I can introduce you to someone that I'm sure you'll like."

My eyes followed him to the door and I stood staring at the door even after he closed it behind him.

Then I jumped back as Babbit appeared in front of the door.

"Sana, he's controlling your mind."

"What? How dare you say something like that about Mr. Narumi. He's too beautiful to be evil."

"Sana, how do you usually feel about beautiful boys?"

"Oh. You're right. But I can't help it. I still want to run out there right now. If he'd just hold me in his strong arms I'd happily blab out my deepest secrets. What can I do?"

"Relax and don't worry about it. You've just proved that you're a stronger Alice than he is."

"What?"

Babbit crossed his wings and hovered in midair while looking down at me.

"Wait, why aren't you affected?"

"I don't know. He just smells funny to me. I'll keep watch in the background and pop up if he tries anything funny, so just act natural and you won't let him know that you've already overcome his power. Now he's waiting for his mind controlled little girl, so you'd better hurry and get changed."

"Right!" I stripped down to my underwear and then put on the shirt and skirt of the uniform, along with the shoes left by my bed. The skirt was a little short, but it did show off my legs and I wanted to show them to Mr. Narumi. I reached for the doorknob then felt compelled to turn back, pick up my ID card and place it in my pocket. I noticed that Babbit had vanished.

Mr. Narumi was waiting just outside my door. "You look so cute in that outfit, now let's go show it to one of your new friends." he grabbed my hand and I followed along blushing furiously as we went down the stairs and then across a few doors.

Mr. Narumi knocked on a door labeled Imai with his free hand. "Hotaru, I've got a new student for you to meet."

"Go away." a girl said from behind the door. "I'm busy."

That was fine with me. Who needed that other girl? I wanted to spend more time with Mr. Narumi, alone.

"Oh, I think you'll like to meet this one."

"Very well, let's get this over with." A girl about my height with short black hair and violet eyes opened the door, stared at me for a moment then grabbed my collar. "How did you get captured so quickly?"

"Mr. Narumi came to my house and explained the Alice Registration Act to Mama. We didn't have a choice."

The girl released me and took a step back. "You're not Mikan!"

"Oh, I'm afraid not. Hotaru Imai, this is Sana Kurata, she's Mikan's twin sister."

"My what, what, what?" I looked up at him. He was joking, right?

"Are you sure?" Hotaru studied my face.

"They're the same age and genetically identical, but I'm afraid the rest of the details are a little obscure at this point. You'll be her mentor to show her around the school. Now I've got some other business to attend to and you two have a lot of catching up to do. I'm sure you'll be quite close." Mr. Narumi waved and walked off.

I kept waving after he had left then turned to Hotaru. "Hi, may I come in?"

"Yes come in." She closed the door behind us then turned to me. "Did you feel the push behind his last command to become close?"

"Yes, Mr. Narumi controls minds."

"Wrong. He controls emotions. There's a difference."

"If he can make you do whatever he wants then what's the difference?"

"He can't make me do anything. My emotions are not the master of me. If I like the general direction he's pushing me then I'll redirect it slightly to go where I want. If I don't, then I think of something depressing to cancel it out."

"Like being stuck here for the next seven years?"

"That's not as effective as it used to be. They pamper me too much and the most interesting people drop by."

"Ah ha!" Babbit popped up. "Somebody else uses mental powers to cancel out our dear Mr. Narumi."

"What is that?" Hotaru looked up at Babbit.

"That's my Alice."

"So you don't have the same Alice as your sister? Instead you project illusions?"

"Oh, he's solid enough." I grabbed Babbit and handed him to her.

"Hi, my name's Babbit."

"He's the one who figured out what Mr. Narumi was doing."

"Yeah, he smells funny."

"Your Alice figures out things by itself?" Hotaru released Babbit and watched him float in midair.

"Babbit's real smart."

"Can it do math?"

"Go ahead and try him."

"Babbit, what is 274,911 divided by 247?"

"Two." "Seven." "Four." "Nine." "One." "One." A row of Babbits popped up in midair. "Divided by." "Two." "Four." "Seven is." another row popped up and counted off the digits.

"What is it doing?"

"Like any rabbit, Babbit can multiply. He says it helps him do long division. So I've got a sister? What does she look like?"

"Here." Hotaru took me into her bathroom and pointed at the mirror. "She looks exactly like that."

"Then how were you able to tell I wasn't her so quickly?"

"Mikan uses Kansai dialect while you are obviously a Tokyo girl."

"Do all Alices have violet eyes?"

"How many Alices have you met?"

"Well, there's you and Mr. Narumi and there was that friend of Mama's. She had blue eyes."

"And your eyes?"

"They're brown."

"As are your sister's. So from the sample size you knew before you asked the question you might have already guessed that no one eye color dominates at this school, but brown eyes are the most common. There are no good physical markers to rule in or out Alice status. A much better test is to look at intelligence. The average student here is a genius."

"So this is a genius school? I'm doomed."

"Don't worry, there's plenty of idiots too. I'm sure you'll fit right in."

"One." "One." "One." "Three." the Babbits announced from the other room.

"Your Alice keeps working even when you're distracted?"

"Yeah, old Babbit's got a mind of his own."

"Old? I'm only five years old."

"So who are you?"

"Like Mr. Narumi said, I'm Sana Kurata, the TV star."

"I don't watch television."

"What?"

"I'm always too busy. When I do have time to relax it's usually some strange hour of the night so I watch a movie on DVD instead."

"Here." I handed her my ID card.

"You're so new that you haven't met a single student and you already have an ID card?"

"All the details are accurate, as far as I know."

"Smile please." Hotaru looked back and forth between me and the ID. "This isn't your photo."

"What?"

"It's your sister." she handed it back to me.

"I see, her nose is just a tiny bit off to the left while mine goes to the right."

"You're looking in a mirror."

"We're identical. So how could you tell this was her photo?"

"By the smile. Yours isn't quite as vacantly mindless as hers."

"Thanks, I think. So you don't watch TV, but I see you've got a lot of books." I took the chance to look around and saw that her room was bigger than my new one, but a lot more crowded. The walls were covered with bookshelves and the floor was covered with large mechanical parts and tables of electronics, except for a small space for her bed, wardrobe and home theater. "Surely you've read something by my Mama, Misako Kurata?"

"What field of science does she write in?"

"None, she writes children's books and novels. Some of those are based on things in her and my lives."

"Wait, I might have something." Hotaru made her way past the gizmos and tables of junk and returned with a book. "Here you go." It was 'The Gigolo and I'. "I picked this up at the bookshop in Central Town."

"Central Town?"

"It's a shopping center outside of the Elementary School, but still within the main Academy walls. This bookstore carries science and general interest books along with books written by Academy graduates and other famous Alices. For some reason they had this one also so I picked it up on a whim, but the contents are a lot tamer than the title would suggest."

"That's the only book of Mama's you have? A pity, it ends just before I was born."

"I must have overlooked the juicy bits. Which page?"

"I'm adopted."

"Do you know who your and Mikan's real parents are then?"

"I've got no idea." I then did the one thing that I was sure I'd never have to do after the publication of 'My Daughter and I'. I told Hotaru the story of my life.

I started with the day Mama found me abandoned on a park bench and named me after the date of the previous day, March 7th. How she searched for my birth mother and then adopted me herself.

Hotaru made some instant tea and I continued with my story about the deal that Mama and I made to each become famous so that we could find my birth mother and how I started in theater.

I told Hotaru about my big break on Child's Toy and then I filled in the missing parts the book neglected to tell about how Babbit started out as my imaginary friend until one day Mama replied when Babbit spoke to her.

"Who are you talking to Mama?"

"This creature here. What's your name little one?"

"My name's Babbit."

"Yes, Babbit."

"But Babbit don't exist. He's just pretend."

"Well, then let's pretend together."

As we took turns with Hotaru's shower I explained how Mama had introduced me to a fan of her writing who had graduated from the Academy years ago and how Mama had offered to enroll me there.

"But if you go then we won't see each other for many years."

"Then I won't go."

For a few years after that I used Babbit only at home, and at the start I could only make one Babbit and only for a few minutes a day, but one day I was bored during a live broadcast of Child's Toy and he popped up and instantly became one of the most popular parts of the show.

Hotaru lent me her spare underwear and pajamas and it all fit very well, as we were of the same height and build. We brushed our teeth together and then I continued with the story of my TV movies and the publication of 'My Daughter and I' and the fake parents who had shown up and failed every test Mama thought up for them.

"So the moles on your derriere are birthmarks?"

"Yes, please don't tell anyone about them. That's one of the tests for my birth mother that Mama left out of her book."

"Mikan doesn't have those. G-string panties would be a violation of the dress code, but at least I'll be able to identify your bodies when one of you shows up dead."

"Does that happen here?"

"Sometimes."

We got into bed and I concluded with Mr. Narumi's two visits and my trip there.

"That's very interesting." Hotaru turned off the light and turned away from me. "Good night Sana."

As I lay there in the darkness three questions suddenly popped into my head. Who was this Hotaru Imai, why hadn't she told me anything about my sister and what was I doing in her bed? But I was too tired to make a fuss about it and soon drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Next: Chapter two: Missing Sister 


	10. Sana's Alice, Chapter two

[Kodocha/Alice Academy/RoD] Sana's Alice By Henry J. Cobb

Gakuen Alice is the creation of Higuchi Tachibana. Kodomo no Omocha is the creation of Miho Obana. Read or Dream is the creation of Hideyuki Kurata. Ginban Kaleidoscope is the creation of Rei Kaibara. This parody is not intended to cause any damage to these properties.

This is the sequel to another story of mine called A Clockwork Tangerine.

Chapter two: Missing Sister

"Is this close enough for you?"

I opened my eyes and saw a pair of violet eyes looking at me from centimeters away. It was that girl Hotaru, and worse yet I had an arm around her.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" I rolled away from her and saw that we were still in her bed, in her room. The events of the past night flashed through my head, "Close enough? It's Mr. Narumi. He made us do this."

"As I said last night, he can't make me do anything I don't want to do."

"You wanted to sleep with me?"

"I wanted to try something out, but it didn't work."

"Uh, what?" I twisted my fingers together nervously. Did she intend to become my girlfriend?

"Your sister Mikan could ease all my pains with a smile."

"Like this?" I smiled at the awkwardness of the moment.

"Yes, nothing. You're useless to me." Hotaru got out of bed, put on a pair of bear slippers, took some pills out of the pile of medicine bottles on her dresser and swallowed them down with a bottle of water from her mini-fridge.

"What's the matter, do you have cancer or something?" I mentally kicked myself and was glad that Babbit didn't pop up to point out how close that was to my line from the TV movie.

"Oh, how I wish. They can cure cancer here. Don't tell anybody outside about that. It's an Alice and not something they can bottle, yet. It's just that I overused my Alice last night."

"But all you did last night was talk to me. Well, I did most of the talking. Wait, did you use your Alice on me?"

"But of course." Hotaru smiled at me like I was a thousand yen note she'd found on the street.

"You wanted me to sleep with you. Do you have a mind control Alice like Mr. Narumi's?"

"No, something far more useful. I have a design Alice. It lets me start with a crude mental sketch and then quickly resolve it into a working model under the constraints I impose."

"That doesn't sound like something you could use against somebody else."

"Designing gadgets is easy," Hotaru waved her hand past the piles of electronic and mechanical parts scattered on the tables and shelves in her room, "Building a model of how a human mind thinks is much harder."

"You're trying to frighten me."

"Go ahead and fear me. It will give me an additional prod to move you around."

"Why bother with me? I'm not that rich or famous and my Alice doesn't do very much."

"I'll leave it to you to figure that out. Now hurry up Sana, If you're late to class on your first day they'll withdraw your application."

"In that case I'll sleep in. Wake me at lunchtime."

"Just kidding. The only way you'll get out of here before you graduate is in an urn and yes cremation is mandatory for dropouts."

"Now you're kidding."

"Oh, how many superpowered delinquents wandering loose on the streets of Japan have you heard about? Now get out of my bed you slacker. You don't want to know about the things they do to misbehaving students here."

Hotaru was changing in front of me, so I doffed the pajamas I had borrowed from her and changed back into the school uniform I had worn briefly the previous night.

"Go get your schoolbag." Hotaru pointed towards the door to her room.

"What?"

"Do you know where your room is? You'll have one of these in there."

"Oh, right!" I ran off to my room and by the time I got outside I saw that Hotaru was riding a skateboard that curved up to a swan's head that had handlebars sticking out the sides of it, and was racing down the path from our dorm.

I ran after her as quickly as a I could, "I still can't believe I let you talk me into your bed so easily. Oh Akito, I'm such a dreadful girlfriend!"

"Whoever this Akito person is, they must not be very important, because you didn't mention them at all last night."

I stopped. She was right. In my haste to update Mama's story with the details of my Alice I had neglected to add back in the personal friends Mama had left out of her book.

When I looked up again Hotaru was gone so I settled down to a walking pace and continued in the direction she had been going.

A boy ran up to me. He was around the same age as me and wore a very similar school uniform, only with shorts instead of a skirt, and a shorter trianglar collar. He had brown eyes and light brown hair and wore granny style glasses, "Good morning, have you seen your sister?"

"No, I -"

"She's supposed to be starting classes today. Let's see if Mr. Narumi's found her." He grabbed my hand and we dashed back the way he came.

"Uh, I..." I decided to just tag along as he seemed to know where he was going.

Mr. Narumi was waiting just a bit further down the path and waved when he saw us.

"I'm sorry sir." the boy stopped in front of the teacher, "But I wasn't able to -"

"I see you've found her."

"What?"

"Yuu Tobita, this is Sana Kurata, our new student. As you can see, she's not just Mikan's sister, but she's also an identical twin."

"No way." Yuu looked at me and adjusted his granny glasses, "Pleased to meet you Miss Kurata. Sorry about before."

"No problem. No harm done. I'm pleased to meet you, Yuu."

"Well now that we've all met, let's move a little ways off the path so that Yuu can show you the Academy."

"Yes." Again I felt that unnatural urge to please Mr. Narumi and be with him.

"Could you close your eyes for a moment, Sana?"

"Okay."

"And you can open them again."

We were floating a few hundred meters above the school.

"Eeek! Don't drop me!" I grabbed Yuu and wrapped myself around him.

"Sana," Babbit popped up, "This is an illusion."

"Yes, this is Yuu's illusion power." Mr. Narumi didn't seem bothered at all to be floating in midair.

I turned to Babbit. "Are you sure this is an illusion?"

"Yes Sana, I can see you three standing exactly in the same place as a few moments ago. I don't see Yuu's illusion at all, but I can see it in your memories."

"That's odd." Yuu looked closely at Babbit.

"Sana's Alice is a little strange, but now we'll have the chance to make sure she's propely trained."

"Yeah, that's my Alice, his name's Babbit."

"Pleased to meet you, Yuu. Now Sana, can you feel the ground under your feet?"

"Yes." I put out a foot and stepped away from Yuu on what seemed to be an invisible ledge.

"I'm sorry I frightened you like that. I didn't know you were afraid of heights." Yuu blushed.

"Sana isn't afraid of heights," Babbit explained, "So long as there's something solid under her. She always asks for the window seat when flying. What she is afraid of is falling."

"Well, why don't we continue this tour on the ground, Yuu?"

Yuu nodded at Mr. Narumi's request, he blinked and we returned to the ground.

I almost stumbled at the abrupt change in apparent location. Babbit seemed to be hiding a smirk behind his wing so I banished the little demon.

Yuu motioned with his hand and a table appeared in front of us with a scale model of the Academy on in.

There was a beep and Mr. Narumi removed a cellphone from his pocket." Oh it seems that something has come up. Can you finish the introduction then show Sana to class, Yuu?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Be seeing you." Mr. Narumi waved and walked off.

I found my arm waving back to him and yanked it down.

Yuu pointed to the table, "The Academy is surrounded by a wall and inside that is a forest. The Academy buildings are in various clearings inside that."

"How did they find so much forest inside Tokyo?" I asked.

"Oh the Academy's been here a long time. The Academy is divided into three schools, the Elementary branch with class A for ages 3 to 9 and class B for ages 10 to 12. The Middle School covers ages 13 to 15 and the High School covers ages 16 to 18."

"No college?"

"Don't worry, they have an excellent placement program. Alice students are just about guaranteed to be admitted to any University in Japan. Now here's the Elementary dorm." The model on the table zoomed in to one building."

"That's where I stayed last night."

"And then here is the Elementary school proper." The model zoomed down the path I had taken then zoomed out to cover the entire Academy as Yuu continued, "And these are the Middle and High schools. This is Central Town, which is a kind of shopping mall on campus."

"And what's this?" I pointed at a small log cabin in the woods north of the Elementary school. I attempted to lean on the edge of the table, but I fell into the table instead and landed on my face.

"Oh, sorry about that." Yuu waved his hand and the table vanished from above me. "But why would you assume that something that appeared out of thin air was solid?"

"Of course creations are solid!" I jumped up, summoned a two-handed mallet and bonked him lightly on the head.

"Oww! That hurt. What's it made out of?"

"It's a thin layer of plastic, but it's mostly just full of hot air, like Babbit. It's harmless, see?" I handed the mallet to Yuu.

"This is neat. So what else can you make?"

"Oh, just things." Crude plastic things like the mallet or Babbit and nothing to match Yuu's effortless masterpieces. My things looked and felt fake or plastic while his illusions seemed to capture details too small to really see. I snapped my fingers and made the mallet disappear with a pop before he could think to wield it against me.

A bell rang in the distance and Yuu looked up from his empty hands, "We'd best be getting to class now. I'm the class president and most of the students call me Mr. President."

"That's so cute, Yuu." I glanced at his collar as he passed me then I tagged along, "So you've got three stars. Does it go from one to five stars or something?"

"No, the only higher rank is the special star and there's only one Elementary student at that level. He's our branch representative." Yuu looked back at me for a moment then continued, "It's unusual for a new student to start with two stars. Did you have really good grades at your old school?"

"No, not really."

"Then it must be your Alice." Yuu held the school door open for me, "Even when you were off balance you managed to project an image to talk yourself out of the problem. I couldn't do anything like that. Well, here we are." Yuu pointed to a door with wooden sign with the English letter B carved into it, "Let me introduce you to the class."

As we stepped into the classroom I saw so many strange things that I couldn't focus on just one. Students were floating in midair, surrounded by crude floating drawings and strange sounds, while others chatted and one gray haired woman in a student uniform was dancing on a desk. How many years had she been held back?

Then it all stopped. The two floating boys and the one standing on the wall jumped down to the floor and the images faded away as the entire class turned to me, except for Hotaru who was reading a book.

"Good morning class." Yuu said, "I'd like you to greet -"

"Two stars!" A green eyed girl with dark green hair that had those silly curled bangs stalked towards me from the back of the class. "You killed a teacher and they gave you two stars? Do you know how hard it's been for me to get to two stars? It's beause you're Mr. Narumi's pet, isn't it? What did you do, sleep with him?"

"Miss Shoda," Yuu moved between us, "This is Sana Kurata, she's Mikan's twin sister. And I'm sure that neither one has slept with older men."

"If you don't count Rei." Did I think that or did a boy in the class say it?

Miss Shoda shoved Yuu out of the way then dropped to all fours as dog ears popped up through her hair and six long whiskers sprang from her cheeks, "Impossible!" She sniffed at the hem of my skirt, "She smells exactly the same as always!"

"I've seen dogs sniff at your leg Sana," Babbit popped up, "But other girls?"

She fell backwards and sat on the floor. "What's that?"

"That's my Alice, Babbit."

"Pleased to meet you, Miss Shoda."

"Don't try to fool me, Yuu." She stood up, swept her hand just in front of Babbit and he popped. She jerked back. "That was solid?"

She haddn't touched Babbit, had she? And he wouldn't have popped from a glancing blow at such a low speed, so what was wrong with my Alice?

"Like she said, it's her Alice. This isn't Mikan."

Miss Shoda glanced at Yuu, then turned back to me. "Have your fun, Mikan, but I'm not fooled. I'll be watching you and when you slip up, you are going to be in such big trouble." She returned to human form, crossed her arms and walked back to her seat.

"That's a strange girl. Her name's Sumire. Thanks, wait, are you reading my mind? Yes." A boy with a frizzy dark blond hair stood up. "Don't worry, she's not Mikan, her mind is different. Thanks for that at least. Will you stop this please?"

"Don't worry Sana," A girl with wavy light red hair spoke up, "Yome does this with every new student he meets. It's kind of a nervous habit."

"Thanks, uh"

"Her name's Anna. Anna, is she from Europe or America? Will you stop that? Okay, be that way. You think you're so special just because you've got an Alice that can blab out my innermost secrets? Well I've already got one of those, so you're nothing new under the Moon."

"You mean under the Sun." Babbit popped up over Yome's head, "Especially as it's daytime at the moment. Wait, do I still have to correct Sana when somebody else is talking for her?"

"Well Son," Another Babbit, with a mustache and three piece suit popped up behind a tiny desk floating in midair, "Your contract does say all verbal utterances originating from Sana. It doesn't mention anything about her saying them herself."

"But she's had a worldwide TV show and millions of people have been exposed to her errors."

The lawyer Babbit and his tiny desk vanished as the generic Babbit sobbed.

"Why can't I feel you telling them to say those things? Babbit's got a mind of his own. But I can't feel that either."

"You can't read animals," Hotaru put down her book, "Can you, Yome?"

"Or crazy people and some Alices like yours or Mikan's can block mine, but Sana's mind is wide open and there's nothing there."

I could hear Sumire giggling from the back of the class at that last comment.

"One way to settle this." Hotaru turned around in her seat. "Babbit, what do you think of that poor blond boy sitting all alone and neglected at the back of this class?"

"This guy?" Babbit flew back to a blue eyed blond boy who was holding a rabbit. "He smells real good."

"Good. Now Ruka, order Babbit to kill Sana."

"What! Are you nuts?" Ruka pointed at Babbit. "Go away."

"Whatever you say Ruka dear." Babbit vanished.

"That settles the question. Babbit is a talking animal, just like Sumire."

"What? Why you-"

"Okay, let's put Sumire down as a maybe on the talking part." Hotaru wrote something in her notebook.

"How did that boy control my Alice? Oh this again? Are you really going to repeat everything I think? Fine. There was a young lady from Brazil, whose suitors all fell deadly ill. You're not going to make me say that one are you? Go ahead and finish it. No I won't. Then shut up. Okay I will."

"That was brillant Sana," Anna said, "But what would you have done if he had said it?"

"Well he'd be the one saying it, not me."

"Oh, you think you're so smart," A boy with a buzzcut got up and started walking towards me.

"Don't do it, Moju."

"Why not?" Moju turned to Hotaru.

"Sana has a phobia about falling."

"Then why shouldn't I bounce her around a bit?"

"She also has a much stronger Alice than yours. If her panic response trashes the classroom then I'll make sure that you fix everything that breaks."

"Those little bats are stronger than my Alice? You are nuts."

"Last warning, Moju. Return to your seat now. You'll get your chance to bungee her later outside."

"Whatever," He turned back and glared at Hotaru, "I don't take orders from you." From my acting training I could see that he was putting up a brave front, but was deathly frightened of Hoatru.

"Let me make one thing clear," Hotaru got up and stood next to me, "This girl is also my property. If you think she needs to be punished then tell me about it and if I think it's warranted I'll punish her myself. But if your suggestion is sufficently amusing then I'll let you watch." She took her seat again. "That's enough fun for now. Let's get class started. Yuu?"

"Yes, miss Imai." Yuu opened the door and said, "Sir, you can come in now."

"Thank you, Yuu." A man in his early twenties with glasses and his dark hair tied back in a ponytail entered, "You are Miss Kurata, correct?"

"Yes sir."

"Please write your name on the blackboard then. I see we have three absences today, Miss King?"

"She still has a cold sir," Anna answered.

"And Mr. Hyuuga and Miss Sakura are still missing."

My sister was missing? What had happened to her?

"Class, we have a new student joining us today. Her name is Sana Kurata and as you can see she is Miss Sakura's identical twin sister, though they were raised separately. Miss Kurata, could you tell the class a little about yourself?"

"Well I'm just an ordinary girl. I was the co-star of the weekly television show Kodocha, I've been in made for TV movies, I had a single that hit number fifty on the Japanese pop charts last year and my mother wrote a book about my life that was the best seller in Japan all through September." I looked at the blank expressions on the faces of most of the students. I had somehow landed in the one spot on Earth where nobody had heard of Sana Kurata and it was inside Tokyo.

"Now where should you sit?"

"Teacher, the seat in front of Mr. Nogi is free."

"Yes Miss Imai, she can have the seat her sister used to have before she moved next to her partner." he pointed at the seat right in front of that blond boy who had controlled my Alice.

As I walked to the back of the class, I found that Hotaru had returned to reading her book and the gray haired woman was just a girl no more than a year older than me, with a youthful face and eyes that seemed to look down on me from ages of wisdom. Anna was sitting next to a blue haired girl and I wondered what country she must be from. Sumire glared at me and I caught this Ruka Nogi staring at me, but he turned away and blushed when I caught his gaze. I sat down and thought I could feel his breath on the back of my neck.

The seat next to me was empty, who was that third absence the teacher had mentioned?

"Miss King." Yome smiled at me.

I turned away from him and looked only at the teacher as he began the language lesson.

The second session teacher asked to see my ID before begining his lecture on science.

The third session teacher glared at me then began a lecture on math. He wrote down two equations then said, "Miss Kurata, what is the common solution to these two equations?"

"Uh."

Babbit popped up. "X is 29 and Y is 65."

"I did not ask your Alice, Miss Kurata. Please do not interrupt class with such displays again."

"Mr. Jinno," Hotaru stood up, "Please accept Babbit as a part of the class."

"Preposterous."

"Miss Kurata has a learning disability and is severely delusional. By the laws governing education in Japan you must make resonable accommodations for her special needs. She uses an imaginary friend as a crutch and her Alice animates it. It's really no different than allowing students to use perfect recall or telekinetic writing during class."

"Very well, but I will allow no disruption of class. Mr. Babbit, can you write with a pencil?"

"Yes sir."

"Then take Miss Kurata's notes for her."

That was something I hadn't thought of before and I watched as Babbit wrote during the rest of the class, filling in extra detail for concepts that I had trouble grasping. Since this was math there was a lot of those.

There was only one further interuption that class when I caught Babbit looking back at Ruka. I poked Babbit on the top of his head with my finger.

"Is there some problem, Miss Kurata?" Mr. Jinno asked.

"No sir."

When the bell rang the students got out of their seats and headed for the door.

I caught up with Anna. "What's up?"

"It's lunchtime and we're heading down to the cafeteria. This is Nonoko." She indicated the girl with long blue hair.

"Pleased to meet you."

"Gee," Nonoko said, "You've really had it rough today."

"Yeah," Anna said, "Hotaru's been really grouchy and bossy ever since your sister left, but this is a bit much even for her."

We went through the line and collected our lunches.

"How come you two got less than I did? Are you both on diets?" I asked Nonoko.

"No Sana, Anna and I are both one-stars, so we get less."

"That's so unfair. I've got plenty so you're welcome to some of mine."

"Thanks, but that's not allowed. Actually we should go on diets. You see Anna is allowed to cook as much as she likes and I'm always helping her eat the results."

"When I've made a batch of singing and dancing cookies we really do have to eat all of them. When they go bad they're a bit much to handle."

"That sounds interesting."

"You're more than welcome to join us. Anita's been sick these past few days so we've had to struggle to take up the slack."

"So what is my sister like? Did she really kill a teacher?"

"Persona wasn't really a regular teacher," Anna looked around then continued, "He was more like the manager for the Dangerous Ability students."

"Dangerous Ability?"

"It's a fifth group of students. Nonoko and I are Techincal Ability students."

"And I'm Special Ability."

"Just like your sister started out as. I don't know why you're in that category. Most of the students who animate things are considered Technical Ability. Well anyway, your sister had recently transfered to the Dangerous Ability students and one day Persona walked up to Mikan and Natsume and she had an argument with him. I don't know what it was about but at the end she pointed at him, shouted 'Die!' and he was disintegrated. Then she and Natsume ran off and it's been all hush hush ever since."

"Natsume?"

"Natsume Hyuuga," Nonoko explained, "He's the boy who sat next to your sister. He was her partner and trainer and maybe her boyfriend."

"Trainer?"

"When Mikan joined our class, Natsume's gang ran the place and bullied the other students. She thought he was evil and he thought that she was naive and stupid."

"So she challenged him to an athletic competition for control of the class?"

"Have you heard this before, Sana?"

"Just a lucky guess." Actually I had lived it before with Akito.

"So he won and she agreed to do whatever he wanted."

"What!"

"He turned away from his gang and devoted the time he had between missions to training her. At first her power wasn't much but she kept getting stronger and stronger. So it wasn't much of a surprise when she could kill somebody with her Alice."

"Do you think Mikan nullifed the molecules in Persona's body?" Anna asked Nonoko.

"I suppose it is possible, but I don't know much about the Nullification Alice, as my Alice is more passive."

"What was that about missions?" I asked.

"The Dangerous Ability students were set up to do missions outside the Academy, but Natsume never told us what he did on them."

The bell rang and the students all headed back to their classrooms.

I caught up with Hotaru after the last class. "Why didn't you or Yuu run when you thought I was Mikan?"

"That's an excellent question," she smiled, "We all saw Mikan commit murder in front of our eyes and it didn't change our opinions of her at all. What kind of person do you think your sister must be like to cause that?"

"She must be a very nice person."

"So now you know what your sister is like and what she looks like. Any other questions?"

"Her power, she has an Alice that heals and kills?"

"No, that's my brother's power."

"If your own brother has a healing power then why did you bother to sleep with me?"

"Oh, I'm going to be the one to sleep with my darling big brother." Hotaru stopped, crossed her legs, leaned her head against her folded hands, closed her eyes and smiled again, but it wasn't as nice of a smile this time. Then she straightened up and looked at me. "No thanks. He's a creep and his power can't help with my problem. Now, why are you following me?"

"I don't know, where are you going?"

"To my Alice class, with the other Techincal Ability students. You need to get to your class. Look, there's a girl from Special Ability, she can show you the way."

The girl was slightly older than me with a blue skirt and tie rather than the red of the Elementary branch. She had shoulder length redish brown hair and brown eyes. She saw me and walked up. "Hi, good to see you're back. Have you seen your sister?"

"No, I..."

"Well I guess it's okay for you to hang around with us today. I hear that your group is still recovering from that mess you left. Let's head back to my group, while the rest of me looks for your sister."

I decided to follow along and play dumb, to test Hotaru's theory that the way people treated me when they thought I was Mikan would tell me what Mikan was like. I wanted to ask what she meant by the rest of herself, but figured that if I asked I would blow this chance.

"This is such a nuisance. They never tell the new students where to go. The other groups have plenty of students so they can just follow them around, but we've only got a handful of Special Ability students in Elementary. And Mr. Noda's gone missing again. If you sense him going by could you reach out and grab him to now?" We entered another building, that was slightly larger than the Elementary branch school. "Well, here we are. I'm sure that everybody will be happy to see you again." She opened the door labeled Special Ability group. "Hey gang, look who's come back for a visit."

A boy of around the same age as the girl who brought me, lifted the black knit cap away from his eyes and took out the lollypop from his mouth. "Hello, Sana."

"What?" The girl looked behind us, "Where is she?"

"Sana is standing right next to you."

"No," suddenly there was two of that girl, looking at me from both sides, "Way."

"Hi," I waved to the group of Elementary and Middle School students, "I'm Sana Kurata."

"Pleased to meet you Sana, I'm Tsubasa Andou and those girls who brought you here are Misaki Harada. As you can see her Alice is a lot like yours."

"Oh", I looked at the two copies of Misaki who were studying my face.

They turned to Tsubasa and spoke in perfect unison. "How did you know she wasn't Mikan?"

"Sana has two stars. Mikan still only has one, if she isn't demoted again when they finally catch her."

"Pleased to meet you Sana." "So, you have an Alice like mine?" Another Misaki appeared, "You can make multiple copies of yourself?"

"Not quite," A Babbit popped up in front of each Misaki, "She can make multiple," "copies," "of," "me." "This guy's name is Babbit." "And he's Babbit also."

"They're illusions?"

"No, they're solid enough. Go ahead and grab them."

"Oh, this is interesting," the three Misakis grabbed the three Babbits, "We have students who can summon solid things." "And students who can animate things." "But the only other student who does both is me." "And I only make more me." "How many of these can you make?"

"More than I can count," I looked around at the decorations, food and drinks, "Is this a party?"

"Yes," Tsubasa waved a hand at the other students, "We're a small group in a big school so we stick together. We all want to meet you."

"In that case," I closed my eyes, "Why don't I meet everybody all at once?" When I opened my eyes again there was a Babbit in front of each student.

I grabbed a glass of punch and a slice of cake then went around the room as the Babbits each introduced me to the student they'd been talking to.

An hour later as the party was breaking up Misaki walked over to me, "Can I show you back to your dorm?"

"Sure, if you don't have anything else to do."

"That really isn't ever a problem, since I've always got enough me to go around. That's some amazing control you've got there. What sort of meditation do you use?"

"Meditation?"

"You know, the duct tape to hold your mind together after you split it into a bunch of parts and then shovel them all back into one pile at the end."

"But I don't split up my mind."

"I saw your Babbit puppets talking with a bunch of different students at the same time. How could you possibly keep track of all of that?"

"But I don't. That's just Babbit."

"Don't you see what he sees and hear what he hears?"

"No. But if he finds something interesting he'll pop up and tell me about it, when I need it."

"So you don't just remember everything Babbit does?"

"No, but he remembers what I do and when the Background Babbit is awake his memory is one hundred percent accurate. Otherwise his memory of what happens to me is no better than my own."

"Background Babbit?"

"That's what I call it. It never speaks to me, but I can feel it in the back of my mind. It used to be a struggle to have even one Babbit at a time, but one day the Background Babbit woke up and now I can just think at it when I need some Babbits and it's all handled offstage. When I want objects I can just create them myself, but Babbit's actions are complex so I need the help."

"You can create objects as well as Babbit?"

"Sure," I summoned up my Babbit styled keyboard and sang, "Sana used to be a star, but now she's just an ordinary, uh, Special Ability Student."

"That's astounding."

"No, it sucks. Usually I do better at coming up with lyrics."

"I mean that you can create something so complex so quickly."

"It took me months to come up with the design. At first I had it float in midair, but I get a better touch response by wearing in on a strap. It's just a thing, unlike Babbit, so it just sits there unless I play it."

"You said you had a TV show?"

"Once a week, right after class."

"That explains why we haven't seen it. Only a fool would skip Alice class to go watch TV." Misaki stopped when we heard a sneeze from the Elementary dorm. "That sounds like some cold. Well, catch you tomorrow." She waved, wavered, then vanished.

A robot was waiting inside the door, It had an egg shaped body with metal accordion style arms and legs. "Welcome back, miss Sakura. Correction, you are miss Kurata."

"Uh, hi?"

"My name is Takahashi. I am the matron of the Elementry school dormitory. Please obey my instructions as you would obey the instructions of the teachers. If you strongly believe that my instructions are in error you may appeal to any teacher, but they are usually very busy so please do not bother them with trival matters."

"Did Hotaru make you?"

"While miss Imai's inventions are quite extraordinary, I am almost as old as she is. I was created ten years ago by another student who now works for a major Japanese company. I am not allowed to divulge anything further about my creator. Let me show you to your room."

"Thanks, but I've already seen it."

"I am sorry that I was not available last night as I was taking care of a sick student."

"If she's that bad then why isn't she in a hospital?"

"While the Academy's hospital is the best facility in the world for treating Alices, the best treatment we can offer for the common cold is bed rest and proper nutrition. Our students can receive these with the least stress in the familiar comforts of their own rooms. Do not be alarmed, as I have taken care to disinfect myself since seeing the student in question."

"Do you mean Anita?"

"I am not permitted to divulge health details on specific students without permission. Here is your room. Dinner will be served in thirty two minutes and fifteen seconds in the cafeteria on the ground floor at the north end of this building."

"Yes, I went there for lunch..."

But Ms Takahashi was already walking away.

* * *

Next: Chapter three: Paper Kitten 


	11. Sana's Alice, Chapter three

[Kodocha/Alice Academy/RoD] Sana's Alice By Henry J. Cobb

Gakuen Alice is the creation of Higuchi Tachibana. Kodomo no Omocha is the creation of Miho Obana. Read or Dream is the creation of Hideyuki Kurata. Ginban Kaleidoscope is the creation of Rei Kaibara. This parody is not intended to cause any damage to these properties.

This is the sequel to another story of mine called A Clockwork Tangerine.

Chapter three: Paper Kitten

As I entered my room my bed looked really inviting. I took off my shoes, summoned a Babbit, and ordered him to, "Wake me for dinner and do my homework." I dropped my schoolbag on the desk, tossed my school uniform over the chair and got into bed.

"Yes, ma'am." Babbit turned off the light, then flew over and switched on the desk lamp.

I pondered for a moment how he had found the switch in the dark, but realized that he ought to have some sort of sonar, being a bat and all. Then I drifted off.

I woke to the sound of growling and it took me a moment to work out that it was my own empty tummy. I looked over to my desk. "Hey, why didn't you wake me for dinner?"

"Tried," Babbit looked up from one of my textbooks, "But you wouldn't listen."

"You are so unreliable. I should have brought that dancing pig alarm clock Mama bought me."

"You never listened to that either. Don't worry, breakfast service starts in 53 minutes."

"What, no count of seconds?" I took off my bra and panties.

"I'm not a robot." He turned back to the textbook.

I tossed my underwear at him, then went to use my shower. It was smaller than Hotaru's and a tiny fraction of the size of our bath at home. When I got out there was a towel waiting for me and clean underwear and a school uniform had been laid out on my bed. I suppose there was no need for Babbit to ask me what I was going to wear, as long as I was a student at this Academy.

"Give me a hand with this," I held my hair out of the way.

"You really are too young to worry about wearing a bra."

"When Akito started getting in his cheap thrills I resolved to cover up."

"You don't have to worry about him here."

"Of course I'm worried." I put on the uniform. "He looked so miserable that last day, like he couldn't live without me."

"You could write him a postcard." A second Babbit poped up so they could work as a team to weave my hair into pigtails then put bows on them.

"And Mama too. I promised her. How many postcards did I bring?"

"Fifty."

"Then write a card to every student in my old class and I'll be back to sign them at lunch. I need to think about what I'll say to Akito and Mama. But now I'll go see if there's a foodcart or something outside to carry my tide until breakfast."

"That's tide you over and you don't have any of the Rabbit coins they use here."

"It doesn't cost anything to look."

Outside the dormitory it was a little nippy in my short skirt. While the sky was lightening it was still some time until dawn. I didn't see any food service, but there was a young boy in an Elementary School outfit sitting on a bench all alone. He couldn't have been more than four years old.

He looked up at my approach then ran to me shouting, "Auntie Mikan!"

I knelt down to hug him. "So, are you my nephew?"

He pushed away from me, and stared at my face. "You're not Mikan."

I could see that his hair was as gray as that girl's in my class. Were they related? "No, I'm -"

"Why are you pretend to be Mikan?" He frowned at me.

"I'm not pretending, I'm -"

"You'll be sorry!" Small ghosts boiled off of him and closed in on me.

"Yi!" I crouched down and covered my head.

"Vroom! Vroom!"

I looked up.

Babbit was flying through the ghosts and slicing them apart with his wings. "Even for ghosts these guys aren't very substantial."

The last ghosts faded away as the boy pointed up at Babbit. "What's that?"

"I'm Babbit, and who are you?"

"I'm Yoichi."

"And I'm Sana Kurata. I see that you have a Alice that's a lot like mine. So you know my sister Mikan?"

"Uh huh." Yoichi was still looking at Babbit. "That's neat. Can I have it?"

"Well I guess you can borrow him, for today. If you promise to behave."

"I promise."

I nodded, Babbit flew down, and Yoichi grabbed him.

"Oof!"

"Careful, or you'll pop him."

"I'll be careful. Lemme show him to the other kids." The boy walked off.

"Sana!" A waifish girl with short red hair was waving to me from the dorm's doorway.

I walked up to her. "And how can you be so sure that I'm not Mikan?"

"Mikan doesn't hand out Babbits." She held the door open for me.

"Point. Well it's good to see that at least somebody from the kindergarten class knows me. Are you Anna's little sister?"

"I'm in the same class as you, I'm not that short, and I'm not related to the Umenomiya family, as far as I know."

"As far as you know?"

"Like you, I'm an orphan. My name's Anita King."

"Oh, you're that girl with the cold."

"I've been out of it these last few days, but when Anna told me how mean the other kids were to you, I begged her for something. She and Nonoko made me a combination chicken soup, decongestant and energy drink. It tastes awful, but it works. I haven't been able to eat anything for days and now I'm starving. Let's go get in the front of the line for breakfast." She grabbed my hand and pulled me along to the cafeteria.

The door was locked so we stood outside. She looked around then asked, "You really liked your show, didn't you?"

"Yeah, it was a blast."

"I'm sorry I brought you here."

"Oh, I'm sure they'll be open in a few minutes."

"I mean to the school. I kept asking Mr. Narumi for more Sana stuff and I guess he got curious and found you out. I really didn't mean anything by it. I didn't think you were really an Alice."

"No. It's my fault for using my Alice on TV. Nobody else forced me to do it."

"But you're my hero and I still feel bad about it, even though it's great to finally meet you in person."

"So you were watching my show and you've seen Mikan around the school?"

"Only from a distance. I was in class A until this quarter. I thought she looked a bit like you, but seeing you up close... It's just amazing."

"Don't the students transfer up at the start of school year?"

"Most of them do, but I was held back a quarter because of my grades, especially Japanese. But then last year I saw your TV show with Babbit and I imagined for a moment that you might be an Alice girl living an ordinary life, and so at peace with your Alice that you could sing a duet with it. I knew you really couldn't be an Alice, but that inspired me to be that girl myself and now here you are. It's kind of weird."

"What's so difficult about Japanese?"

"It's not my native language. I think I'm from the UK."

"You think?"

"The first thing I can remember is being alone, cold, and hungry in an abandoned church. Mr. Narumi came and I tried to hide, but he told me to come out so I did."

"Yes, he has that effect."

"He said that I had an amazing power, and that he worked for a school that would help develop it. I asked him if he'd feed me and he gave me a candy bar so I followed him here. That was five years ago, but I didn't do much in school until I saw your show."

"Five years ago in the UK, didn't something happen?"

Babbit popped up. "There was a terrorist attack that set fire to London."

"A fire...", Anita looked down for a moment then back up, "Hi Babbit."

"Hello, miss King."

"Just call me Anita. My name's the only thing about my life from before that I remember, so I want all my friends to call me by it."

At that moment the cafeteria door unlocked and that robot, Ms. Takahashi opened it. "Good morning Misses King and Kurata. Please do not use your Alices in the cafeteria. I have had enough problems with that bat with class A this morning." She turned around and went back to the serving area.

"Oh sorry," I clapped my hands over Babbit, but I must not have done it hard enough, because instead of popping he drifted down to the floor.

"Ouch! Well I may not ever travel to Australia myself, but she's already wearing me down under." He pointed a wing up at Anita.

"Oops!" Anita tucked her skirt hem between her legs and backed up a step.

"They make Babbit panties?"

"With the dress code it's about the only thing we get to choose for ourselves." Anita looked down at Babbit.

"They make Babbit panties?"

"I don't think they're made anymore, they weren't able to get me any last time I asked." Anita looked back up at me.

"I am so going to kill my former agent when I get out of here!"

"Wow! I'm as famous as Hello -", Babbit was cut off as I stomped him out of existence.

We were the first students in line, and I noticed that while my breakfast was Japanese, Ms. Takahashi gave Anita an American style breakfast with granola, scrambled eggs, bacon, toast and two cartons of milk.

When we got to our table, I saw that Anita's tray somehow had three cartons of milk on it, but I wasn't the only one who noticed.

"So Miss One-star, what's with the three cartons of milk?" Sumire asked.

"One is for the cereal, one is my beverage choice and the other one must have fallen on by accident."

"A likely story. You used your Alice to grab it, didn't you? Well, I'll just confiscate that." Sumire grabbed one of the cartons, opened it and started lapping at the milk with her tongue.

"Ugh gross." Anita stuck out her own tongue.

"So, do you want it back?" Sumire held up the carton.

"Not now that it's got dog germs in it."

"I'll have you know that a dog's mouth has fewer germs than a human's."

"So you admit to being a dog?" Anita smiled at Sumire.

"Humph!" Sumire walked away with the carton.

"Hi Sana and Anita!"

"Oh, good morning Anna and Nonoko." I turned to them.

The two girls sat at our table then Anna whispered to me, "Don't worry about Sumire and Anita, they do this kind of stuff every morning. I think Anita gets the extra milk for Sumire. Sumire won't switch to the American meal plan because the Japanese meal plan has more fish."

Anita was just pulling a fourth carton out of her pocket when Nonoko put her hand over the shorter girl's forehead.

"You've still got a fever Anita. You ought to stay in bed."

"I can't lie around when they're doing all that stuff to Sana, especially that devil Hotaru. And anyway I'm hungry. Feed a cold and feed a fever after all."

I half expected Babbit to pop up at that, but I didn't say it and I suppose he was following the rules for once. "So you have an Alice for stealing milk cartons?"

"Don't believe a word Sumire says. It's all lies. This is my Alice." Anita pulled a white paper card out of her pocket and started folding it. In just a few seconds she had turned it into a miniature model of Babbit, including a crinkle outline of a heart on its chest. Then she sat back, pointed at it and commanded, "Fly."

The paper Babbit flapped its wings then fell on its face.

Anita looked down at her creation. "The teachers say that a Paper Master ought to be able to create small winged creations that fly, but even my paper airplanes crash. It's all I can do to make unfolded cards fly straight when I toss them."

"Still, it's very cute." I wasn't exaggerating. Even really skilled people took longer than that to make simple paper cranes.

"You can have it. I've got enough Babbit stuff in my room already."

"Thanks."

"That's the truth. When I first entered Anita's room last night I saw posters and toys from Kodocha all over the place. Why didn't you tell us about Sana before?" Anna asked her.

"I was just a new student in the class and I didn't see what the point was. You only watch cooking shows and Nonoko only watches science programs. It's not like I expected Sana to ever show up here."

Ms. Takahashi walked into the cafeteria, "Hurry up, it's time for your first period classes."

Anita walked with me to the school building. "If any of those bullies try to hassle you today Sana, I'll show them." She tossed an index card and split a stone by the path. Then bent over to retrieve her card.

I couldn't help looking at the Babbit pattern on her panties, but I quickly looked away. "Uh, I'm sure we can resolve our differences without violence."

In class Anita took the seat next to me and pulled out a laptop computer from her bookbag, which didn't seem to have any books in it. She seemed to be the only one in class to have a laptop. She borrowed my notebook to type in my notes from the previous day. "You wrote all of this yesterday?"

"Babbit took over, starting in third period."

"Yeah, his writing is much neater and clearer. I didn't know he could do that."

Mr. Narumi showed up at the start of first period. "Now class we need to select a partner for Sana to show her around the school."

"Well, I ..." Yuu began as Anita frantically waved her hand, but Hotaru stood up.

"I'm sorry Hotaru, but as a first year student yourself, you're not qualified."

"Actually I rose to suggest Mr. Nogi." Hotaru pointed at me, no past me to that boy Ruka who had controlled my Alice yesterday.

"An excellent idea."

Ruka just sat there, like a deer in the headlights, but the rest of the class was shocked.

"Why would she?" Anita looked from Ruka to Hotaru.

"And one more thing sir," Hotaru addressed Mr. Narumi as he turned for the door, "I've discovered another interesting facet to Sana's Alice. If I may?"

"Go ahead."

"Sana, send Babbit up here."

I nodded and he flew up to her.

She spent the next two minutes in rapid fire questions in various foreign languages that Babbit gave short answers to, then she finished in Japanese, "Thank you Babbit."

"Very impressive indeed, but did Babbit catch you on the Latin?"

"Yes he did, Sir. Our new language expert is Sana."

Babbit flew back and I asked him, "How did you do that and how did she know you could do that?"

"I've got a knack for languages. It must be part of the perfect memory. She probably did a search on Kodocha and noticed that you were triple credited for actress, special effects and translations."

"You've been translating our shows?"

"You did promise to become famous worldwide."

What else had he been doing behind my back?

At lunch I sat with Anita, Nonoko and Anna again. "So why was everybody so shocked when Hotaru suggested Ruka?"

Anna looked around. "Promise not to tell?"

"Cross my heart."

"A lot of this is rumor, so take it all with a big grain of salt, but Hotaru is Ruka's girlfriend, or at least she seems to want to be."

I could see that Hotaru was sitting with Ruka and talking to him, but he seemed to be ignoring her. "It doesn't look that way."

"Well they were in the play together, along with your sister, and they had a big kiss onstage. Also they had the last dance together, at least halfway."

"They half danced together?"

"Hotaru cut in with Natsume halfway through it and left Mikan with Ruka. The rumor is that Ruka has or had a crush on Mikan before Natsume claimed ownership of her. Ruka and Natsume were best friends but Mikan managed to use Ruka against Natsume twice while she was fighting to be in the class."

That sounded a lot like how I had leveraged Tsuyoshi's crush on me against Akito, using their long term friendship. "So the three of them were in a play together?"

"Yes, as a prince and two princesses."

"Ruka was the prince who had to decide between them?"

"No, Hotaru was the prince and Ruka and your sister were the princesses. Hotaru rewrote a few fairy tales together into a story about Alices, without calling it Alices."

"That sounds like what Mama does."

"You know your and Mikan's mother?" Anna asked.

"No, my adoptive mother, Misako Kurata, the author."

"I've got one of her books."

Nonoko and Anna both looked at Anita, and after a moment Nonoko asked her, "You've got a book?"

"Yeah, the new one with Sana in it."

Anna leaned over and whispered in my ear, "Anita hates books. Even her textbooks had to be scanned into the computer to get her to read them."

Our Physical Education class was held outside and Anita and I sat under a tree after sprints.

A leaf fluttered down from the tree and Anita pushed me to the side, "Watch out!" She pulled two cards from her pockets and swiped at a figure that came down from the tree.

It was Sumire with her cat and dog features, and she blocked Anita's cards with her hands then kicked Anita in the stomach.

Anita rolled back then got to her feet. "Okay, let's do this."

"Stop stop stop!" I stood between the two girls. "This is crazy. I saw Anita's card cut stone. Can you imagine what that would do to a person? Wait, you blocked her cards with your hands?"

"Not my hands, this." Sumire held up one hand and something shimmered a few centimeters past her outstretched fingers.

"Sumire was taking it easy on me, Sana."

"How can you say that after she kicked you?"

"She had her shoes on. Her toe claws are deadly, almost as bad as her foot odor."

"As usual you can only talk tough, short stuff."

"Why are you two doing this?"

"I used to be ashamed of my Alice," Sumire turned to me, "But the one thing your sister showed me was that even the most pathetic Alice can really amount to something if properly trained. Anita and I have the only close combat Alices in our class so we practice surprising each other to test our reflexes."

"But that was a cheap shot, waiting until I was distracted by Sana to jump me."

"So what are you going to do about it?" Sumire turned towards Anita with her hands outstretched. Now that I knew what to look for, I could see the shimmer of her alice claws extending past her nails.

"I'll show you right now, I'll ..." Anita shook her head then collapsed.

"What?" Sumire knelt down by the other girl, and touched her forehewa. "She's burning up. Get a teacher!"

"Babbit go!" I summoned a Babbit and he flew over to the teacher who was coaching some other kids.

An ambulance was summoned and Anita was taken off to the Academy hospital.

Hotaru caught up with me as I walked back to the dorm that afternoon. "Anita will be fine. She's being released back to her room this evening."

"Oh, that's great."

"But you still look so down. I've got something that will pick you up," She stepped away and then pointed back at me, "Bungee her."

"What?"

That boy with the buzzcut, Moju, was waiting by the path. He made a grabbing motion with his right hand and I was lifted up by an invisible force, "You think you're so great just because you've been on TV. Well, I'll show you what real power feels like."

"Remember that falling, not heights is her phobia," Hotaru took a seat on a bench and pulled out a notebook, "So you may need to bounce her around a bit."

"Stop being so bossy." He waved his arm up and down.

I couldn't take my eyes off the ground as I bounced in midair. "Babbit, get him."

"With pleasure," A Babbit appeared and flew down to him, "Are you ticklish?"

"Keep away from me." The boy gestured with his other hand and Babbit was tossed back.

A dozen Babbits appeared all around him and started tickling him with their wingtips. "Coochie coochie coo!" "Coochie coochie coo!" "Coochie coochie coo!"

"Get off me." Moju used both hands to defend himself from the attack.

I dropped. "Help!"

Suddenly scores of Babbits appeared in a pile on the ground under me. As I landed most of them popped, but some were sent flying in all directions.

Hotaru pulled out a flyswatter and deflected one that was heading towards her so that it flew behind her and smacked into Mr. Jinno's face as he walked by.

"Hello sir." the Babbit said.

Mr. Jinno held up the Babbit by its wing. "What is the meaning of this?"

Hotaru looked up from her notebook. "I just training Miss Kurata in the use of her Alice."

"This is not the time or place for such things. Be more careful." Mr. Jinno gave off an electric shock and the Babbit popped.

That evening I signed the cards I had forgotten to do at lunch and was sitting there thinking what to say to Mama when a car pulled up to the dorm. I looked down and saw Anita get out so I ran down the stairs.

Ms. Takahashi was walking up the stairs with Anita. "Now this time I'm under orders to keep you in your room for three days.

"Until Sunday?" Anita waved to me.

"Yes and no sneaking off this time young lady. You gave us quite a scare today."

I tagged along and stopped outside Anita's room.

"Come on in." Anita grabbed my hand.

"I want you to go right to bed, young lady. I'll bring your breakfast in the morning." Ms. Takahashi didn't even notice me as she turned away. "Please use the intercom if you suffer a relapse."

I followed Anita inside her room and asked, "What was that about?"

"Visits are against the rules, but Ms. Takahashi never notices them. It must be a bug in her program, but the students don't mind. I've got to lie down, but please stay for a bit."

"Okay." I sat in her chair and looked around her room. She seemed to have every Kodocha poster ever released along with some Babbit themed items even I hadn't seen before. And sandwiched between two toy Babbits was the only book in the room, "My Daughter and I".

"Yeah, I'm going to read that someday. You should have seen the look on Mr Narumui's face when I asked for a book. Sana, would you mind putting that disk in the DVD player?"

"No problem."

Anita worked a remote control from her bed and skipped through an episode. I noticed that it was last year's Halloween episode. She fast forwarded to the moment I dreaded.

On the TV Babbit and I were singing, "I don't want to know dustiness. Keep away that holy water. I'm going to be Bat-tized in your blood."

Anita paused the display, "That's it, the first time I saw you. On the screen I thought I saw a girl and her Alice and she made it seem so easy, like it was the most natural thing in the world. I really put an effort into studying Japanese, just so I could understand what you were saying."

"So you have the entire run?"

"Just the past year, and your best of collections."

"Well let me show you some much better episodes than this one."

We went through several disks until finally Anita went to sleep snuggled up next to me on her bed. I didn't want to wake her, so I used the remote to turn off the TV and slept there.

In the morning I tried to sneak back to my room, but Hotaru was waiting by my door.

"You seem to have a problem sleeping alone."

"You've been spying on me." I unlocked my door.

"Can I schedule Yuu for tonight? I think he's got a crush on you, or maybe it's just because you look so much like your sister. Why not find out?"

"It wouldn't be proper for a teenage boy and girl to sleep together in the same room." I wasn't about to admit to her that I had already slept snuggled up against Akito in his room, but that's all we did, sleep.

"The Academy won't mind at all, get ready and I'll explain on the walk over after breakfast."

Babbit was sitting on my desk and pointed an accusing wing at the cards I hadn't sent.

"One minute!" I dashed into the shower, and a few minutes later with one towel wrapped around me and another around my hair I wrote the card for Mama.

Mama, sorry about not writing first thing but my life's really insane here. It's a lot more challenging than I'm used to, but I keep finding new things about myself. For example it seems that I have a twin sister, but she's not here right now. The people who are here are very much unique and no two of them are the same. Just in my class there's this girl Anita who's a wizard at origami and Hotaru who's always full of the strangest ideas. I wonder if you were like that when you were eleven. I'll write again soon, love Sana.

I tucked the cards in my bookbag, along with the blank one for Akito. I just didn't know what I could say to him yet.

"Don't forget the homework I did."

"Thanks Babbit. I don't know what I'd do without you." I looked in the mirror and saw my sister's face. Enough of that. I undid my twin pigtails and tied back my hair in a single ponytail. "No more clone pig for me!"

Babbit bit at his lip until I left my room, but I could hear him giggling behind the door.

That morning Hotaru was as good as her word and didn't use her scooter.

"So what's this about the Academy not minding?" I asked her, "Don't they have a reputation to uphold?"

"Apparently their Mission is more important to them. There's one girl in the Middle School who gets breaks from class to nurse her baby, a few of the senior class girls are showing and nobody is ever reprimanded about it."

"She can't be more than fifteen. That's not all that much older that us. What is going on here? And what's about this Mission? Isn't the Mission of the Academy to train children with superpowers so they don't harm anybody?"

"And where do all of these superpowered children come from anyway? Take our dorm. Are the girls and boys rooms in separate buildings, different floors, or at least distinct wings?"

"No, they're kind of mixed together."

"They alternate by star class. Just look at the first floor. There's Natsume's room, then mine, then Yuu, then Sumire, then Ruka and so on. Why would they do that? You've seen Ms. Takahashi's blindspot with respect to visits and the other schools are even less supervised."

"Are you spying on me all of the time?"

"Just keeping an eye out for you so you don't waste your time with a boy of a much lesser Alice ranking. At least the Academy has spared you from going out with a non-Alice anymore, and just in time it seems."

"How dare you! Whoever I see is nobody's business but my own and you and this Academy can just stay out of my life. Why would they care anyway?"

"The children of two Alices tend to be stronger Alices and they're all sent back here where they only see other Alices day after day and the cycle repeats over and over again, getting stronger each time. All of these superpowers are not the result of natural evolution, but rather the product of a clever design. And it's been going on for quite a while now. How do you think Japan became the number two economy in the world so quickly, after being defeated so totally by the Americans?"

"Well if we had all of these superpowers, why didn't we defeat the Americans back in the war?"

"Because the school's patron asked them not to. He sent the students back to the Academy instead of wasting them on suicide attacks. You may doubt my words now, but if you look around you'll see that everything about this Academy supports what I say. Even the partner system is always girl-boy and they're never reassigned as long as the relationship looks like it might have a chance. I keep Sumire's brother on a long string so I don't have to put up with some other fool."

"Wait, Ruka is your boyfriend right? So why did you get him assigned to me?"

"I'll catch him on the rebound. Even Sumire can have her go at him first. It might be very useful to have a catgirl with a pheromone power around. Or a skunk boy. Whatever, I'm sure their kid will be cute."

"You'd steal somebody's boyfriend away? After they've had a baby? You're crazy."

"Oh my. Whatever was I thinking? Who shall provide for the child's kindergarten, elementary school, Middle school, high school and college scholarship, not to mention the food, lodging, clothing and allowance for all of those years? I suppose it will just have to be you, me and all of those other Alices in the top one percent of taxpayers. And we're not even in middle school yet."

"Your gadget Alice makes it easy for you to make money wherever you are. I'm not sure I'll have a career when I get out of here."

"Did you forget that the entertainment industry is all about contacts? Have you heard of that Japanese corporation with the robots, music players, TVs and other electronics that owns those worldwide recording and movie labels? The guy who built Ms. Takahashi works there. I'll introduce you to him next time he visits. Not that you need an introduction. A simple graduate of Alice Academy on your resume will get you hired on the spot."

"They hire a lot of Alices?"

"How do you think they became so successful?"

When I entered the classroom, Ruka stared for a moment, blushed and turned away.

"What's his problem?" I asked rhetorically.

"That hairstyle," Anna peeked back at Ruka, "It's the same one your sister had as a princess in the play."

"Speaking of which," Hotaru didn't look up from her book, which was "My Daughter and I", "Mr. Narumi has been bugging me to write a sequel to that play. I'll do it if you'll reprise Mikan's role. Assuming she isn't back here under my thumb by then, of course."

"Oh, so you want me to play the princess because of my looks, voice and trained grace?"

"Not exactly. You'll be a mute, deformed, shambling, undead monster. Don't tell anyone, but it'll be a cross between Frankenstein, Pinocchio and Sleeping Beauty."

"Wow," Nonoko rested her chin on her hand, "That sounds interesting."

"And why would I agree to do anything like that?" I stood over Hotaru's desk.

"Because for the next seven years the only acting experience you'll have is in school plays, and you crave the limelight like a vampire craves blood." Hotaru didn't look up at me, but simply flipped the page of my mother's book.

"Hisss!" I summoned a black cape to wrap myself in. I went to the back of the class and crouched down in my seat.

A Babbit appeared. "What's up Sana?"

"Her logic, my pretty. It burns like holy water," I banished the cape, "Remind me to share my notes with Anita tonight." I handed him my notebook and a pencil.

"Will do, boss."

"You are such a clown." Sumire crossed her arms.

"Don't worry about her," Yome stage whispered back to me, "Ruka thinks you're much cuter than Sumire and wonders how he'll costar with you, given that his character is dead dead, instead of undead."

"What!" Sumire looked over at Ruka, "Say it isn't so."

"Um well, I..."

"Don't worry Ruka," Hotaru put away the book, "I'll write you a new part and Sana will get the kiss with you this time. And a slow dance. That will take a lot of practice, because while Sana's had dancing lessons, you haven't." She nodded to Yuu and he went to open the door for the first period teacher.

Mr. Jinno entered the classroom at the start of third period, put his books down next to the math homework papers we had turned in, took out an extendable aluminum pointer and faced the class. "As you are all aware, Miss King collapsed during physical education yesterday. I have become aware that one student here was responsible for this. Will that student stand please?"

I sneaked a peek at Sumire. She was looking cool, but I knew she was going to get it.

"Let me make myself clear," Mr. Jinno continued, "We found a foreign substance in her bloodstream."

Anna stood, "Sir."

"Yes Miss Umenomiya?"

"It was my fault, Sir. I took one of Nonoko's potions without her knowledge and added it to the soup I gave Miss King."

"Thank you. One week's suspension from cooking privileges."

"Thank you, Sir. It won't happen again."

"I certainly hope not," Mr. Jinno turned back to the pile of homework and pulled out my paper. "Well Miss Kurata, you seem to have finished all of the assignment and it looks like you have all the answers correct. Could you come up here and show the class how you did problem number four please?"

He handed me the chalk and I wrote down the problem as he read it off. Then I summoned a Babbit pin on my collar and bent down to whisper to it, "Where do I start on this?"

Zap!

The Babbit pin popped and I held my hands to my chest as I collapsed to my knees. I blinked away the spots in front of my eyes, then when I finally dared to breathe again I looked back at Mr. Jinno.

He was still pointing his aluminum wand at me. "There is a fine line, Miss Kurata, between using your Alice to assist in your education and using it to cheat. Please do not cross it again. Now work the problem out by yourself this time."

"Y-yes, Sir."

At lunch I asked Anna, "Why did you take the fall for Sumire?"

"I'm thankful that Sumire kicked Anita." Nonoko didn't look up from her lunch, but she didn't seem to have much of an appetite for it.

"What?"

"After Anita collapsed, I went back to the lab and checked my formula. I had made a deadly mistake. If Anita had waited until she was back in her room before fainting then nobody might have seen her until the next morning. And the one thing this Academy can't do is raise the dead. Thanks for covering for me Anna. I'll go apologize to Anita today, if she'll ever listen to me again."

"I would have been punished anyway as I was a part of it. If you had told him that you were in on it he might have ordered us to never collaborate again and you always bring out my best work. From now on we test on us first. Right?"

"Yes," Nonoko shook pinkies with Anna.

"Is this a suicide pact?" I asked the pair.

"Well, I hope not, but with Anna's cooking you can never be too certain."

"What would your boyfriends think?"

"We haven't got any boyfriends yet, but maybe when we're just a little bit older, Mr. Misaki will take another look at us."

"That's our science teacher, right?"

"Isn't he dreamy?"

I wanted to bring up the things Mama had told me about my crush on Rei, but with the look on Anna's face I just couldn't break her chicken before it hatched.

I caught Mr. Narumi at the end of lunch and handed him my big pile of postcards, except for the blank one with Akito's name on it.

After Alice class I rushed back to the dorm, but Sumire and Nonoko had gotten to Anita's door first.

"I'm the one who kicked her. I should talk to her first."

"No, it's my fault for mixing up the formula in the first place."

"Excuse me, coming through." I pushed past them then closed the door behind me.

"Hi Sana," Anita was sitting at her desk, watching my show on DVD, "What's up?"

"They're arguing over who gets to apologize first for killing you."

"Lock the door. I'd rather talk to you."

"I brought the notes from class today, but I can't stay long. I've got to go do my homework."

"Oh? Did he zap you?"

"Yeah."

"He's going to get a paper cut so bad when I get back to class."

"Can't they track that?"

"Not really. Ms. Serina can track Alices, but only when she's using hers. It was a big deal when your sister started sniffing out Alices even when they weren't active."

"Mikan can smell Alices?"

"Well it wasn't smelling or hearing. It was like she has a second sight. Natsume paraded her around campus blindfolded and she was able to name people by their Alices."

"Healing, killing, smelling, it sounds like a big mess. So what was her Alice anyway?"

"They call it the Nullification Alice and when I first heard about it she was only supposed to be able to defend herself against other Alices and she wasn't very good at that, but she got much better very quickly. Let's get your grades up so that Mr. Jinno doesn't zap you again."

We started on the math homework, but quickly became stuck so Babbit popped up and helped us through it.

As I was gathering up my papers, Anita looked over at her DVDs and asked, "Did they ever catch that Akito guy?"

"What?"

"The guy you said was the devil, the worst student in Japan."

"Oh that. That was just a joke. He's a boy in my old class. He's kinda nice, but he had a rough childhood. His mom died - when he was very young."

"I wonder what it's like to have a mother?"

"But speaking of Akito, I've got to send this card to him."

"He's the only one from your old class that you feel like writing to?"

"I've written to everybody else, but I don't know what to say to him."

"He's that important?"

I nodded and I guess I blushed a bit.

"What are your plans then?"

"What?"

"Will you wait for him, no matter what, for seven years?"

"Yes."

"Then tell him that."

As Anita looked on I picked up a pen and wrote the card.

Akito, you troublesome boss monkey and lone wolf. This is a great school and full of fascinating people, but the only one I want to see is you. This is the first place where I've ever felt ordinary and average, but the only one I want to be special to is you. I'm going to get or make a seven year calendar and mark off every day until I can return to you. Please do the same. Remember, Mommy's watching. -With deepest love, Sana.

"I though you said his mother is dead."

"I'm sure she's watching from somewhere." I didn't want to bring up the time when I had pretended to be Akito's mom. Looking back on it, it felt a little strange for a girlfriend to do that.

On Sunday Anita was finally cleared to leave her room.

I met her at her door. "Come on, I've got something to show you."

She followed me to the Elementary School. "Uh Sana, we don't have to go back here until tomorrow."

"Come on, it's great."

Once we were inside I had her put on a blindfold then lead her to the spot I wanted to show her.

"Sana, there's a lot of paper nearby. Is this the supply closet?"

"Even better," I took off her blindfold, "See? They've gotten in all of Mama's books."

Anita looked around the library and started screaming.

"What?" I held up my arms as books started flying around. The books began to fall apart and the pages flew out on their own. One of the pages flew past my face and cut my cheek. "Ow!"

"Sana!" Babbit popped up in front of me and then was cut down by a flying page. "Use", more Babbits popped up and were cut down, "Your," "Magical," "Girl," "Sana," "Shield!"

"Yes!" I summoned up my shield, only bigger and thicker than I had used on the air and hid behind it as pages gouged into its front.

Finally the storm passed and I looked out over my shield. All of the books had been shredded into a half meter thick layer of paper across the library. Some of the shelves had been destroyed while the others were scared from cuts and in the middle of it Anita was kneeling on her hands and knees, breathing heavily.

"Are you okay, Anita? That's some power you've got there."

"Sana, your face. I cut you. No, not again." She turned and ran away on top of the piles of paper.

I tried to follow, but it was like walking through a snow drift.

Mr. Jinno appeared at the door. "Who brought Anita into the Library again? Oh Miss Kurata. I should have known. This is your final warning, young lady. The next time you cause trouble we will be forced to take corrective action."

"I can pay for the repairs, Sir."

"I'm sure that you could, but what would we say on the bill we handed your accountants? Instead you will apologize to your classmates for the extra trip they'll need to make to the Middle School until we get this fixed."

I went back to the dorm and knocked on Anita's door, but there was no answer.

I sat at the desk in my room and ignored Babbit as he tried to help me with my homework.

He looked up from my mostly blank paper. "Well it looks like you're not the only Alice to make Babbits around here."

"What?" I turned to the window and saw another Babbit fly up to my window and perch there. It's movements seemed less smooth than Babbit's usual hovering.

I went over to the window to study it. It was a robot with hard plastic parts that swiveled on obvious joints. Suddenly the red heart on its belly vanished and was replaced by a scrolling display that read, "Follow me to Hotaru's lab."

"Sure." I nodded then turned for the door.

The robot Babbit was circling outside, but then went down a path and I followed it to another building nearby.

A robot around the same size as Ms. Takahashi was sitting there on the roller balls it had instead of legs. "Halt, who goes there? Miss Sakura, Miss Imai is waiting for you." He rolled aside and pointed to the door.

"Uh, thanks." I opened the door then followed the robot Babbit inside.

One of the doors down the corridor opened and the robot Babbit flew in, sat down on a desk next to Hotaru and turned off.

"I've got the trademark on Babbit, you know." I looked around Hotaru's lab. It was huge and had a lot more junk than her room, including some giant robots and strange vehicles shaped like animals that were parked near the garage doors at the far end.

"Your lawyers aren't allowed in here, and I've got pizza." Hotaru pointed to a box from my favorite pizza delivery company.

I opened the box, took out a slice and started to munch away at it. "Chocolate syrup, tomato paste, three cheeses, bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, sliced black olives, jalapenos, pineapple and five species of meat, if you count the anchovies. It's a Sana Special!"

"It's to thank you for destroying the library."

I stopped eating. "This is poisoned, isn't it?"

"No," She grabbed a slice and took a bite out of it, "But you do have strange taste."

"Well excuse me."

"I am grateful for your vandalism. All that library had was a bunch of kiddie books and out of date hand me downs from the other schools. This way I don't have to bother making up excuses to use the Middle School library for the next week."

"But how did you know what goes on the Sana Special? Do you have a mind reading device?"

"No need. You put it on your blog back in July."

"And how did you get delivery here?"

"I made a new oven design for them, and asked for a pizza a week for the next year. The school couldn't turn down a sponsor and they've got an online ordering service. Simple enough."

"Wait! You've got Internet access. Please, please let me use it. I won't use much bandwidth, just chats with Mama and IM with Akito."

"No."

"What?"

"Contact with the outside is strictly forbidden for students. Especially troublemakers like you. And isn't it about time you gave up on that boy?"

"Never!" I reached for another slice of pizza.

"Perhaps you just want somebody a little more mature. We can visit the Middle School next week and I'll shop you around to some of the boys there."

"Do your worst. It won't matter to me."

"There's one thing I can't figure out. Here I am doing my level best to convince you that I'm watching your every move and controlling everything around you and you don't freak out. Mikan would love to have that much attention from me, but what's your excuse?"

"I don't know. It just seems familiar somehow. It's like I've known somebody like you all my life."

"Thanks. I'll include that in my calculations."

Monday morning the first period teacher looked at Anita's empty seat and explained that she had suffered a relapse.

At the start of third period, Mr. Jinno glared at me then started his lesson.

I cast my eyes down to my notebook and followed Babbit's writing, "Wait, what does that bit mean?"

"Miss Kurata!"

"Sorry teacher, I just didn't understand that last part."

"Come here."

Mr. Jinno reached into his pocket and pulled out a bracelet.

I heard a noise behind me and turned to see that Hotaru had ducked behind her desk.

All of the other students looked at her, then hid behind their desks.

Mr. Jinno locked the bracelet on my right wrist then jumped back. He waited a moment then said, "Miss Kurata, I have had enough from you, your sister and your entire family. Why couldn't you have been a nice well behaved student like Miss King's mother?"

"You know who Anita's mother is?"

"I misspoke. I meant Miss Umenomiya's mother."

I looked at Yome, "Is that true?"

He looked away.

"A wise choice, Mr. Kokoro. Now Miss Kurata, you will return to your seat. You will be quiet. You will study and you will learn."

As I returned to my seat I saw that while most of the other students glanced at me with horror, Hotaru glared at Mr. Jinno, and Sumire refused to even look at me.

Babbit wasn't at my desk and I noticed that the Background Babbit wasn't running in the back of my head, so I tried to start it and nothing happened.

* * *

Next: Chapter Four: Skating with the dead 


	12. Sana's Alice, Chapter four

[Kodocha/Alice Academy/RoD] Sana's Alice By Henry J. Cobb

Gakuen Alice is the creation of Higuchi Tachibana. Kodomo no Omocha is the creation of Miho Obana. Read or Dream is the creation of Hideyuki Kurata. Ginban Kaleidoscope is the creation of Rei Kaibara. This parody is not intended to cause any damage to these properties.

This is the sequel to another story of mine called A Clockwork Tangerine.

Chapter Four: Skating with the dead

The other students avoided looking at me during the walk to the cafeteria. As we all stood silently in line I felt like a monster.

It wasn't pity or hatred. It was horror. The other students seemed to dread the thought that the same thing might happen to them. Were they so petty? Their powers were just party tricks. None of them stood to lose their best friend. The comforting presence in the back of my mind was gone. I felt empty as I pushed my tray along.

"Is there anything else Miss Kurata?"

"What?" I looked up at Ms. Takahashi, our robot matron.

"Can I get you anything else?"

"No, this is fine," I picked up my lunch tray and headed to my usual table.

I half expected Anita to show up, with a few smuggled milk cartons, but she was absent from class today. She was avoiding me, because of what I'd done.

I looked down at my tray and tried to summon an appetite.

Somebody sat down next to me and asked, "Are you going to eat all of that?"

"Probably not. As a two star I get more than enough." I looked over at her tray and saw that it had even more food than mine. It was Hotaru, one of the two students ranked at three stars in my class.

"Great, I'm famished." She picked up her chopsticks and looked over my tray.

Two other students sat down across from us.

"I don't know what Hotaru's game is, but you don't have to sit at the pariah table." I fended off Hotaru's chopsticks with my own. She didn't seem to be really serious about this game, but hadn't my plate started with three tempura shrimp?

"Pariah?" Anna asked, "I'm also banned from using my Alice, but I wouldn't put it that way."

"Oh sorry," I looked up at Anna and Nonoko, "I didn't mean it that way."

Anna grabbed my bracelet in her hands, "Don't let this get you down. If we didn't have great powers it wouldn't be worth restricting us."

"Are we just our powers?" I pulled my hand back and thought about the other things that Mr. Jinno had said. "Didn't he say that Anita's mother used to be a student here?"

Nonoko looked up from her lunch. "He said that was a mistake."

"He's a bad actor. Take the word of a professional here. Won't Anita be excited to finally get a clue about her past?"

"You'll have to be the one to tell her." Hotaru made another probing attack at my tray.

"Oh." I parried her chopsticks with my own. It was my fault that Anita was absent. How could I face her again?

"He also said your sister and your family," Anna leaned forwards, "Was that part a mistake?"

"No, he really meant it, but he couldn't know my Mama. She never left Kusatsu until she went to college in Tokyo."

"Are you sure he didn't mean your and Mikan's real parents?" Nonoko asked.

"I guess if they were Alices, they should have been students here," I looked down at my lunch. There wasn't much left. "Oh look, Sumire is talking with Ruka," I pointed over to were Sumire had taken Hotaru's usual seat as Hotaru had taken Anita's.

"Oh, she can have her fun. I'll win in the end."

I took advantage of Hotaru's distraction to grab a bowl of noodles off her tray and slurp them down in one gulp.

"Are you okay Sana?"

I tried to respond to Anna, but I was choking. That had never happened to me no matter how fast I ate.

"But you should be careful who you steal from." Hotaru elbowed me in the gut and I gulped the noodles down.

"Spicy!" I grabbed my glass of water and carefully sipped from it.

Misaki Harada from the middle school was waiting for me after class. She looked at my new bracelet, then up to my face. "They really did it to you. They're always coming down on us Special Ability types. Come on, I've got somebody you can talk to about this." She grabbed my arm that didn't have the bracelet.

"Us?"

"You're not the first one to have to deal with that thing."

I let her lead me to the auditorium and then down the stairs to the basement. It was mostly a single large room with a skating rink. At that moment there was only a single skater on the ice, a highschool girl with violet eyes and long blue hair tied back in twin ponytails, much like my own hairstyle. Next to the rink there was a golden eyed brown haired girl who looked a little too young to be in my class.

The younger girl looked up as we walked up. She turned off her boom-box which had been playing "My Heart Will Go On" and turned to the skater. "Hey Tazusa, it's Misaki and Sana!"

"Huh?" The girl named Tazusa stopped her ice dancing routine and skated over to us, "You're that girl with the TV show aren't you? My sister Yoko is a big fan of yours," she nodded towards the younger girl.

"You were on TV also, in the Olympics..." I stopped as I noticed that Tazusa wore the same sort of bracelet that I did.

"It's great that you already know each other. I'll leave you two to talk about Sana's little problem." Misaki waved and vanished.

"She's always doing that," Tazusa turned to me and looked at my bracelet, "Alice problems?"

"It's Babbit, he won't shut up, so the teacher shut him up with this."

"A voice you can't get away from? I can see why Miss Harada sent you to me. Yoko, this is serious stuff so I don't think you should..." Tazusa turned to her sister, who had picked up the boom-box and already started walking away, "Could you at least wait for me to finish my requests?"

"I know when you don't want me around," Yoko said over her shoulder, "Just get me Sana's autograph please."

"The telepaths say they're frightened by the empaths. At times like this I see what they mean," Tazusa turned back to me, "Let me get my skates off and we can talk. But first, do you frighten easily?"

"No."

"Are you scared of ghosts?"

"No, no, I'm a big girl."

"That's strange," Tazusa smiled evilly at me, "because everybody I've explained my Alice to around here has been very very afraid. I've only had to say something like 'Let me show you how it works' twice."

"D - don't you have an Alice for skating? What's so frightening about that?"

"That would be great, wouldn't it? No, I'm afraid that I don't have an Alice for skating, at least not anymore. It's a long story. I'll give you one last chance to bail before unloading it on you."

"I can handle it, but I know you now. You're that figure skating champion with an angel's smile and a devil's soul who failed to win a single medal."

"People who live in the public eye shouldn't quote the tabloid press."

"I don't have to worry about that here. The media is shut out by the government."

"None of the other students understand how that is the single best thing about this Alice Academy," she smiled more gently, "Follow me and I'll tell you the Tazusa Sakurano story. You've had your Alice all of your life?"

"Babbit showed up when I was six. I had drawn pictures of him for a few years before then, but I didn't think he was real until people started responding to him."

"And you managed to evade the Academy all these years? In my case I had no idea I was an Alice until I was sixteen. I had been figure skating for most of my life, on my mundane talents, and had even gotten to international competition. It was during a match in Canada that I fell over and hit my head."

"On the ice? That must have been painful."

"Unlike the hockey players, we figure skaters don't get helmets for protection or sticks to steady ourselves with. Everything seemed fine when I woke up in the infirmary, but over the next several hours I started hearing a voice in my head."

"You've got a telepathy Alice?"

"No. Well kind of, in an odd sense. Here's where it gets scary. The voice in my head was a dead boy."

"What?"

"I've got the Ghost Capture Alice. His name was Pete Pamps and he had died just as I was falling onto the ice. I had never heard of Alices so I was sure I was going mad, except that he was helping me in things like English and my other subjects. He also had an Alice, but I didn't notice that until he was gone."

"Gone, gone where?"

"Wherever dead spirits go I guess. But that's getting ahead of the story. When I first found out there was a boy inside my head, seeing and hearing and feeling everything I did, I freaked out. I was literally beating my head against walls to hurt him. Then I found out that he couldn't stand tomatoes."

"Tomatoes?"

"Pete couldn't stand the taste of them. For a while I was on an almost entirely tomato diet, but still he was helping me out all he could. He helped me redo my entire routine not once but twice and for the first time I found I could visualize an entire routine and the moves I could do. Well, just let me show you."

I looked up at the highschool dorm, "Couldn't you show me on the ice?"

"Not anymore. Come in, I've got a video in my room."

Tazusa first showed me a video of another skater, "What do you think?"

"It was very nice, I guess."

"It should be, It won her a gold medal, now here's mine."

I was puzzled for a few minutes then pointed at the screen, "You're skating with somebody invisible."

"No, it's all in my head."

"But look there. He just picked you up!"

"Sorry, it's a jump. I went over this video with my coach and we determined that it was just physically possible for me to do all of these moves. In my head I was skating with Pete and on the ice I was borrowing his Alice of visualization, balance, and location sense to pull it off. The judges didn't know what to think of it so I didn't get a medal, but now most of them have signed a petition to have me awarded a special honor from the International Skating Union for my performance."

"You borrow Alices?"

"Only of the ghosts I capture and only while I have them. I'm a meta-Alice like your sister. I'm not sure if I could capture the ghost of a non-Alice even if I wanted to."

"Wait, I thought you said you accidentally used your Alice. Where's the 'want' in that?"

"No, looking back at it, it's always been my choice, but now I can't trust myself to even take this bracelet off, in case some idle whim triggers my Alice again."

"But if you could have any Alice you wanted, why wouldn't you use it?"

"Not all ghosts are as friendly as Pete was. Getting back to my story, it was during the awards ceremony that Pete passed away. I mean he was already dead, but his ghost stopped working or passed on to the next life or paradise or whatever. Knowing Pete, I like to think he was taken up to Heaven. So I whispered something to myself and him, and he didn't respond. I figured he was playing a little game or something and I let it slide. After a week of silence in my head it wasn't so funny."

"Did you go crazy?"

"Even worse, I went back to Canada. I latched onto some dinky little match there and begged and begged my coach until he took me there. The day before the match I ran off. Pete's parents found me sobbing at his grave, begging him to say just one word, even if it was goodbye."

"Ouch."

"I knew them from Pete's dreams, so I told them I was a friend of Pete's from Japan and they assumed that I had met him while he was a student in Japan. We had gone to schools just a kilometer from each other. I had probably passed him on the street a few times and never knew it. Not that I would have paid him any attention at the time. I was a pretty stuck up little girl."

"His dreams?"

"A side effect of my Alice. I get to visit the ghost's dreams and a lot of them are about their previous lives. I started out as a voice in his head, as he was a voice in mine while awake. After awhile I started to have a physical presence in his dreams. It was getting pretty intense there at the end, but you're too young for that."

"Did you ever kiss him?"

"Never while awake. Like I said, I met Pete's parents at his grave and I went back to their house and we talked about Pete. They gave me that picture of his."

"Who's the girl in the other picture frame?"

"My second ghost. I'm just about to get to her. I collect these like campaign medals, at least I guess that's what Pete would call them. After I went back to my hotel room that night I felt charged up for the first time since losing Pete. The next day I won the match, unfortunately."

"Unfortunately?"

"That's where that girl comes in. She won second place and felt that her life was over. So she went back to her dressing room and threw her life away. At that very moment I was feeling empty, consumed by grief and I reached out for somebody who would understand my grief and captured my second ghost."

"So you choose the ghost you want?"

"Yes, I grabbed Pete as I knew I was falling and desperately wanted the power of perfect balance, and I got it, along with Pete. Her Alice and personality weren't so pleasant."

"Oh."

"The Academy was already tracking me down after my Olympic performance and they helped a lot with the second ghost, but still it was a hundred days and nights of hell. The bracelet turned off her Alice, but I still had to deal with her voice. At the end I think I managed to talk some sense into her, but she was never happy about being undead."

"A hundred days?"

"Yes, I've had two ghosts and each time they went away a hundred days to the minute after they died. One of the boys in my class joked that I should make my senior project about being a detective who solves murders a hundred days after they've been committed. I asked him if he'd volunteer to help me test that and it shut him up."

"Senior project?"

"You won't have to worry about that for a few years, but every student has to come up with a plan to use their Alice in the real world outside the gates before they graduate. The joke in the highschool is that the students who fail to come up with a project are condemned to remain at the school as teachers."

"In that case I already know what mine will be, I'll just summon up Babbit and we'll have a TV show again or do puppet theater or something. Just as long as he'll behave."

"I'm not sure I'm the right student to help you then. I can't imagine what I would be like if I had never used my Alice, but I dread the thought of inviting another stranger into my head. I am frightened half to death of everything that I am."

On the way back to my dorm I thought about what Tazusa had said. She used her Alice while asleep and I used Babbit in my sleep, but I didn't remember it. Perhaps I could do something about that.

Hotaru was sitting in front of our dorm, reading 'My Daughter and I'. "Tazusa's Alice is key. Pity you were wearing that bracelet at the time."

"Why would I need my Alice? All we did was talk."

"Yes, that's the pity." Hotaru didn't look up from the book about my life.

I decided I'd had just about about enough from Hotaru that day. I ignored her at dinner and when I returned to my room our robot matron was waiting for me.

"It's not healthy for a growing Alice to be constrained all the time like this. I can remove your bracelet, but you must not use your Alice outside your room. Do you understand me, young lady?"

"Yes Ms. Takahashi," I held out my arm and she removed the bracelet and walked away with it.

I could feel Babbit starting up, but I held him back. Not yet please.

I took off my school uniform, turned off the light, lay down in my bed, glanced to the window then closed my eyes and concentrated. Babbit is outside my window. Babbit is outside my window. I repeated the thought over and over again as I drifted off to sleep.

* * *

I appeared outside Sana's window and looked in on her. She seemed to be sleeping peacefully.

Oh good, it worked.

"Is that you Sana?"

Yes. I'm kind of fuzzy because I'm asleep, but I'm seeing what you're seeing.

"Are you sure this is okay? You promised Ms. Takahashi you wouldn't use your Alice outside your room."

I'm asleep in my bed. How much more inside my room could I be?

"Okay, but why am I outside?"

I want a bat's eye view of the school. My tour with Yuu got cut off when I bonked him on the noggin.

"Are you sure you can handle flying?"

I've flown with Mama on her overseas book tours.

"Yes, but like this?" I took off then folded my wings and dove down the side of the building.

Aiiiiiiiii!

I pulled out of my dive a meter off the ground and started to climb.

Don't do that. You almost woke me up.

"So where do you want to start?"

Why not retrace my steps today?

"Good enough." I flew over the auditorium and then towards the highschool dorm.

How far have you gone before?

"I'm now 412 meters from your side. It's a new record. Are you feeling any strain?"

No, feels fine here. You've never gone this far before?

"I'm here for you, not the entire world."

That's sweet of you.

"It's selfish. If you're taken out I go poof. Look who's on the roof of the highschool dorm." I landed near Tazusa and waited.

She was following a dot of light in the sky with binoculars, "Korean Airlines to Seoul, right on schedule," She wrote something in her notebook then turned to me, "Hello Babbit."

"Hello Ms. Sakurano."

"Call me Tazusa please. What brings you out here?"

"Sana is trying the trick you suggested of using her Alice in her sleep. She wanted to see the school from above."

"So Sana told you all about me?"

"I remember what she remembers, but it is a little fuzzy because her Alice was blocked at the time."

"Fuzzy?"

"Normally I have perfect memory of everything she or I see. It's one of my many talents."

Ask her about the binoculars.

"Sana would like to know what your observations are about, if you don't mind."

"It's just something I picked up from Pete."

"Well I promised I'd show Sana the school, so I'd best be going."

"Happy flying. I bet Pete would have loved the power to fly like you, even if indirectly."

Why did you run away from her so fast?

"She seemed to want to be alone with her memories of Pete."

Oh.

"Let's go visit Misako."

You can do that?

"It's only twenty kilometers from here. Let me know if it starts to be any strain and I'll turn back instantly."

But I want to see Mama.

"Even if I can only get a little way past the school wall I can call her collect and arrange to meet her at a coffee shop or something."

You're a smart bat.

"I only use the vast reaches of your brain that you never touch."

Is that an insult or a compliment?

"Take it as a challenge to live up to your potential please."

I wouldn't want to crowd you out.

"There's little danger of that, but you really don't need me."

Yes I do. I need you very much Babbit. I order you to tell me when I'm doing anything that would block you.

"As you wish. Here comes the fence."

There was a faint tingle then ZAP! I was trapped and it felt like bolts of lightning were ripping my wings off.

Aaaaaaah!

"S - Sana, turn off your Alice!"

But she kept screaming as I was slowly shredded. Finally it all faded to black.

* * *

I jumped out of bed and landed on my face. I lay there for a minute while it felt like bowling balls where smashing into my head from either side.

Then I looked around. I could see the light from the corridor coming in from under my door and I crawled over there.

Finally I got my nose all the way to the door. I pulled one leg forwards under me and then the other. On my knees I reached up until I felt my doorknob and leaned on it as the door opened.

I fell out into the corridor. It was too bright, I shut my eyes and curled up with my face to the floor. I could feel my leg kick something and my door closed with a click. I was fairly sure I'd left my key inside.

I considered screaming for help, but my own ragged gasps pounded in my ears too loudly already. There was nothing for it, I'd have to go to her.

With my eyes tightly closed I reached forwards until I could feel the corner of the stairs then I worked my way up hand over hand until I found the handrail.

I pulled myself up with both hands and felt forwards with one foot into empty air. With a leap of faith I shifted my weight forwards and fell to the next step. I tried counting the steps, but the numbers wouldn't stand still in my mind and I didn't remember how many there were anyway.

Hours later it seemed I stumbled when there wasn't another stair and lost my grip on the end of the handrail. I collapsed to the floor and looked down the corridor. I couldn't make out the nametags, but only one door had a light showing under it. The girl who couldn't sleep. I crawled over that way.

Finally I could see the light under her door and I knocked on it.

"Who is it?"

"Help me," I croaked too loudly then covered my ears too late.

Hotaru opened her door, stood still in front of my face for a minute or so and then she said, "You look a mess. What happened?"

I didn't look up from Hotaru's bear slippers. I didn't want to risk losing my balance sprawled out on the floor. "Babbit tried to fly over the school's outer wall."

"I see that you've met the Academy's barrier Alice. Let's see what I've got." She picked me up and sat me down on her bed.

I fell over on my side and thankfully rested my head on her pillow instead of falling off her bed.

Hotaru read the labels on some prescription pill bottles on her nightstand, "Too strong. Let's try some Acetaminophen."

She held my head up while she gave me the pills and held up a glass of water for me to gulp down. Then she turned off her light and lay down beside me.

I closed my eyes, and after a long while the throbbing in my head faded away to oblivion.

The next thing I knew Hotaru was removing my underwear.

"What?"

"Time to get ready for class." she shoved me into her shower and followed.

I felt a bit of life return to my foggy head as she scrubbed me all over then toweled me off and sat me in her chair. She stood behind me to comb out my hair then tie it up in twin pigtails.

"Your hair is short, how do you know how to do this?"

"I had plenty of practice with Mikan. Can you dress yourself or do you need help with that also?"

I looked down and noticed that I was in fresh underwear. Hers no doubt, "I can handle the rest."

"Good."

We both put on school uniforms of hers, but while she had a three-star pin, I didn't have any two-star pins on me.

"Uh, I think I locked myself out of my room."

"Come along."

I followed her upstairs and she scarcely broke stride before opening my door with a click.

"How did you do that?"

"A magician never reveals her secrets. Get your bag. Can you make it to the school on your own?"

"I guess."

"Great, because I need breakfast. I'll see you there."

I transferred my two-star pin to the uniform Hotaru had lent me, then grabbed my bag.

Ms. Takahashi was waiting at my door, "There you are young lady. I was afraid that you'd run off and forgotten this," She held up the bracelet.

"Please," I held out my arm and she locked it back on.

My first two classes passed by in a daze and then Mr. Jinno came in and seemed rather smug.

"Miss Kurata, how was your little excursion last night? What did you think of the school's defenses?"

"They're very effective, Sir."

"Would you like to try them again?"

"No sir."

"Do you promise to behave yourself and give up these little escape attempts?"

"Yes sir."

"Then come here."

I walked to the front of the class and he removed my bracelet.

On the way back to my seat I could feel Babbit attempt to start and then he seemed to shrug and go back to sleep. I didn't use my Alice at all for the rest of the day, but Babbit was there to wake me up the next morning.

Hotaru was waiting at the dorm door and looked up at Babbit, "So you're an Alice again?"

"Aren't we all born this way? Or may-bee it's something special in our diet, like royal jelly, that turns us into Alices?"

"Sorry", Hotaru started walking beside me, "It's all genetic. With a tiny contribution from maternal environment."

"Then identical twins would have exactly the same power and Mikan doesn't have Babbit, does she?"

"Babbit isn't in your genes."

"Well duh, he's a bat. He doesn't wear jeans or other kinds of pants."

Hotaru took her copy of "My Daughter and I" out from her bookpack, opened to her bookmark and started reading.

"I think you're being too silly for her, Sana."

"Well, you're just a bat and according to her, you don't even exist."

"It's good to see you're so energetic," Hotaru flipped the page, "Let's put that energy to work after class. If you do a good job, I'll show you the Alice that's closest to Babbit. If you added that wrinkle to him, he could be quite useful."

"But Babbit isn't wrinkled. He's smooth inflated plastic, see?"

Hotaru didn't look up from the book and kept walking. I wondered how she kept to the path. The few times I'd tried reading while walking, I had bumped into things.

After class I turned to Hotaru, "You said you needed me for something?"

She held up a slip of paper, "Yes, let's go to the Middle School."

"Huh?"

"Somebody destroyed our library so I got a pass to go use theirs. Promise not to destroy this library?"

"I'll be careful."

"Good."

After we got there I looked around the library for a few minutes then turned back to Hotaru.

"Ready to go?" She carried two books.

"That was quick."

"We're not done yet." Instead of heading for the building exit, she went up the stairs.

I followed her. "Are you going to show me to some of your Middle School boys?"

"Not today." Hotaru opened a door with a suspicious click. She had done that one handed. How exactly was she picking these locks?

I found the equipment inside to be very familiar, but far from the state of the art gear I was used to using. "This is a recording studio!"

"One of the perks the Middle School has over us. I suppose nobody wants to hear what the Elementary students have to say," Hotaru took some pages out of her bookbag, "Why don't we record this?"

I looked over the music. "And when you're running scared, think back on the time we shared and know that it meant nothing. It meant nothing to me." I looked up at her. "This is a bit edger than my usual stuff."

"So grow up. And anyway that's my lyrics, yours are these lines."

"You also sing?"

"Try me."

"But won't we need a lot of other students to play all of these instruments?"

"Can't Babbit play some of them?"

"Oh, right." I summoned up a bunch of Babbits with little fake musical instruments.

"Can't he use the real ones?"

"Babbit?" I turned to him.

"Sure, but you may need to summon up more of me, because some of these take multiple Babbits to play. I'm not as big or strong as a human."

The next morning Hotaru met me outside my door and took me to her room.

"What's up?"

"I just wanted to show you that your fans haven't forgotten you." she sat at her computer and pulled up one of the most popular fansite blogs about me.

"A sneak peek at Sana's new album?" I grabbed her mouse and scrolled down. "He's got a mp3 of that recording we made and a fake album cover with the two of us?" The picture showed Hotaru and me leaning against each other and crying under the title "Teardrops on Kittens". The tears were falling on an orange kitten we held in our hands. The kitten was looking somewhat damp and very put upon. "I didn't pose for this. Did you get Mikan to do it?"

"No, it's all photo editing."

"How did he get all of this?"

"That was asked in the blog comments and he replied that he has a secret source, but actually it's just because he had a weak password. Your fanboys are so predictable. And now it's bouncing all over the filesharing networks so even the Academy can't stop it."

"I can't even send email to Mama and you get to do this? If you'd use your powers for good just once I'm sure you could solve all the world's problems."

"I do intend to solve all of the world's problems. I'm just waiting for you to pull the trigger."

"Me? I can't make enough Babbits to help everybody."

"You need to wake up to your real power first. Perhaps when your sister answers this call she can straighten you out."

"Those lyrics, they were a message for Mikan? But wherever she is, I'm sure she doesn't have time to browse the net."

"She might be sitting in a cafe in Rome, but this should be big enough to hit the general media."

"What gives you the right to do these things?"

"You agreed to help me and so I'll do as I promised in return."

"You'll show Sana the Alice like me?" Babbit asked.

"Yes, after class."

At lunch we were joined by Anna and Nonoko as usual.

Hotaru looked around, "It seems that our dear Miss King is still cutting out on class. Don't you miss her horribly Sana?"

"She's hiding because I was horrible to her," I looked down at my plate and blocked Hotaru's attempt to steal one of my meatballs.

"Let's stage an intervention."

"What did you have in mind?" Anna asked, then her eyes grew wide as Hotaru replied by humming something, "You wouldn't."

"Count me out," Nonoko looked away. "I've killed Anita enough already."

I couldn't place the tune, so I summoned Babbit and asked him, "What is that song?"

"It's the Teddy Bears' Picnic." He shrugged his wings.

Next: Chapter Five: Bear and Prince


	13. Sana's Alice, Chapter five

[Kodocha/Alice Academy/RoD] Sana's Alice By Henry J. Cobb

Gakuen Alice is the creation of Higuchi Tachibana. Kodomo no Omocha is the creation of Miho Obana. Read or Dream is the creation of Hideyuki Kurata. Ginban Kaleidoscope is the creation of Rei Kaibara. This parody is not intended to cause any damage to these properties.

This is the sequel to another story of mine called A Clockwork Tangerine.

Chapter Five: Bear and Prince

Wednesday afternoon after Alice training class I met Hotaru back at our dorm and we went to Anita's door.

Hotaru knocked.

There was no answer.

Hotaru knocked again.

"Go away!"

"I thought you might want to say goodbye to Sana." Hotaru nodded to me, not that Anita could have seen this gesture from behind her door.

"Why? What are you going to do to her, you monster?"

"I'm taking her to see the teddy bear."

Anita stomped over to her door, threw it open, and pointed to Hotaru. "You're insane."

"So are you going to say goodbye?"

Anita turned to me, "You're not really going with her. Are you, Sana?"

I glanced at Hotaru, then back to Anita. "Sure, why not?"

"That's it. Hold on," Anita went back into her room, put on a fanny pack and stuffed several packs of index cards into it, "Let's go."

"So you want to come with us?" Hotaru's poker face was very good, but my actor's training told me she was somehow very amused and satisfied at the outcome.

"Somebody has to save Sana from your evil schemes."

"As for that, I've considered that the best way to train Sana's Alice is to keep her life in constant jeopardy. You can of course continue to cut classes and just hear about it afterwards."

"Or I can cut you down here and now." Anita held up one card between her fingers.

"You can try. But if you do that, then you should expect punishment. They might even cut off your milk ration. If you're done, we can go now. We certainly don't want to let it get dark before we meet it."

"A teddy bear?" I asked.

"It's a homicidal stuffed animal." Anita put the card away and walked between me and Hotaru.

"Mr. Bear is just misunderstood. I'm sure if Sana gives him a hug, he'll feel much better."

"Why are you doing this?" Anita had one hand near the zipper of her fanny pack.

"Like I said, it's all for Sana. I wanted to show her an Alice like Babbit."

"Oh," Anita stopped for a moment then rushed to catch up, "But isn't Sana's Alice more like mine?"

"Your origami creations don't have an ego."

Babbit popped into existence over Hotaru's shoulder at this. "Are you saying I've got an ego problem?"

Hotaru ignored him and continued talking to Anita, "Your creations have no personality of their own. They're just crude puppets and you have to concentrate continuously to move them. Babbit is a much closer match to being a Technical Alice. Even Anna's dancing cookies have more life to them than your paper creations.

"But the cookies only dance. Babbit's a person."

"Thanks for the support!" Babbit landed on the top of Anita's head and pearched on her short red hair.

"So there is a range of independent behavior and Mr. Bear is closer to Babbit than any of the Technical Alices in the Elementary school. Even my robots don't match up."

"I suppose," Anita looked up at Babbit then back to Hotaru, "But why not take her to see Mr. Bear's creator?"

"He's not available at the moment and we Technical Alices are best known by our creations."

"He?" Anita asked.

"After Sana showed up I did a bit of homework. Here we are are the Northern Forest. Anybody want to bail out now?"

I looked at the dirt path that lead into the dark woods. "After all of that I can't chicken out now, can I?"

"Don't say chicken," Anita walked ahead of us, with a handful of cards, "Mr. Bear isn't the only hazard in these woods."

There was a sound to our left. Anita tossed three cards over her shoulder then turned to see a squirrel scampering away from where the cards had cut into a tree branch.

"Isn't that one of Ruka's little friends?" Hotaru asked.

"If so it's your fault for getting us into this mess." Anita went to retrieve her cards.

Hotaru looked at Anita, no down at Anita's footsteps. "I'm surprised you can't use your Alice on wood."

"I can sense dry wood," Anita turned back, "but I can't bend it because the grain is all lined up instead of random like paper."

"And leaves?"

"Oh," Anita considered Hotaru's question then closed her eyes. Dry leaves lifted off from the ground and spun around her. She opened her eyes again and the leaves fluttered down, "That's neat. The grain is aligned like wood, only not so thick."

"If Sana had an Alice that worked like yours she be able to bend thin plastic she found rather than created," Hotaru turned to me, "Can you?"

"I've tried and I can't, but I think I've figured out what my Alice is."

"Do tell." Hotaru raised an eyebrow.

"I've got the same Alice that Tazusa has! Babbit is just a ghost I've captured."

"So Babbit is just some guy you had inside you all these years?" Anita asked.

"Yeah, that means he's seen me in the bath and everywhere..." I blushed beet red.

"Relax, that isn't the case. Is it, Babbit?" Hotaru asked him.

"No, I don't recall anything before Sana created me."

"But you could be lying!" I pointed at him.

"We can skip over the fact that you've had him for five years instead if a hundred days and his access to your memories because even very similar Alices differ in the fine details, but if we assume you're correct, then what is Babbit's Alice?"

"Babbit's Alice?" I looked at Hotaru.

"Assuming you have the Ghost Capture Alice then you won't have the Alice to summon and control the plastic things. That's too broad."

"Yeah, so that's Ghost-Babbit's Alice and I grabbed that along with him."

"How about his perfect memory then? We have a boy in our class who only has the perfect memory Alice and nothing else."

"So I grabbed and kept two Alices."

"Where is the ghost for this second Alice? You don't have two voices in your head do you?"

"No."

"There's a girl in the Middle School who just has a translation Alice. She speaks smoothly in any language she's ever heard. Our perfect memory Alice can read and understand other languages, but he does so very slowly as he has to cross reference every word and sentence structure against his perfect memory, rather than thinking in the other language. Which of those does Babbit work like?"

"He has the translation Alice."

"So we can either assume that you have one Alice and have captured another Alice who has three or more distinct powers or we can assume that you yourself are doing all of this. So Babbit, which explanation do you favor?"

"I am not an Alice expert", he explained, "There is very little written in the outside media about them."

"Don't chicken out on us like this." Hotaru smiled at him.

"Peep!" The sound thundered out from behind us.

"I told you not to say chicken!" A few dozen index cards flew from Anita's pack into her hands, as she turned around and looked up.

I followed her gaze. It was a yellow chick. The only difference it had from the one I had given Tsuyoshi's sister Aono, was that this one towered over the trees.

"So do you think you can kill it in one blow?"

Anita glared at Hotaru then turned back towards the chick, "It's just a baby you monster!"

"What does it matter how she kills it?" I glanced back to see if there was some cover to dash to.

"Oh, I keep forgetting that unlike Mikan you're a city girl. In the country we've seen chickens run around for a bit after their heads have been chopped off. I knew I should have brought Ruka instead of Anita. But now our choices are a big chicken dinner, or to become the big chicken's dinner."

"Chickens eat bugs don't they?" Anita looked down at her cards, "I can fold up a dragonfly to distract it, but I can't make it fly." She looked up at Babbit.

"So you want me to lure it off?" He asked.

"If you don't mind," Hotaru replied, "For Sana's sake."

"It's really big. I doubt it will even notice me."

"How about dozens of Babbits then!" I summoned a Babbit swarm around the giant chick's head.

"Peep?" The chick pecked one of the Babbits and it popped. It jerked its head back and then bit back at the swarm, popping half a dozen. The swarm moved off to the right and more Babbits appeared.

"Peep!" The ground shook as the chick chased after the Babbits.

"Why didn't we hear that before?" I allowed my concentration to lapse, confident that Babbit would keep up the chase.

"It can be quite sneaky when it's hunting for food."

"How long can she keep it up?" Anita asked.

"That's a great question. Sana, why don't you send some more Babbits to fetch a snack and we'll have a picnic right here until your power gives out."

"No! Let's run!" Anita grabbed my hand and hurried down the path. "Do not ever listen to that girl again."

"Don't get too far ahead," Hotaru followed at a more moderate pace, "Neither of you two know exactly where Mr. Bear's cabin is."

"You could send a Babbit ahead, Sana. When it gets popped you'll know where the bear is."

"Really," I stopped, waited for Hotaru to catch up and grabbed her hand with my free one, "The way you two go on. It's just a teddy bear. How bad can it be?"

"She didn't tell you anything about it?" Anita glared past me at Hotaru.

"No, but Anna and Nonoko seemed freaked out about the teddy bear."

"Oh, how have they been? And everybody, since I've been away."

"It's the same old - Wait!" I stopped, "Anita, Mr. Jinno knows your mother."

"I have a mother?"

"Well doesn't everyone?" Hotaru released my hand, looked around, then turned back to us, "But he said he misspoke."

"That was a lie. I'm sure of it."

"So did you get Yome to check?" Anita looked up at me.

"Mr. Jinno threatened him into silence, but he wouldn't do that if he didn't have something to hide."

"If the Academy knows anything about my family then Mr. Narumi would tell me about it. I'm sure of it." Anita looked down at her feet.

Poor girl, he had her as brainwashed as he did me.

"Oh look, Mikan. It's your little friend."

I looked at Hotaru then turned around to follow her gaze. There was an ordinary brown teddy bear standing on the path behind us, holding three wildflowers in its paw. Or maybe the flowers were glued on because the teddy bear didn't really have any fingers to hold them with. But how could it be standing there on just its hind legs without support?

"You remember Mikan, don't you, Mr. Bear?"

The teddy bear moved. It looked at Hotaru then back to me.

"Oh, I'm not Mikan."

The teddy bear bent over, carefully placed the wildflowers to the side of the path then started running towards us.

"Sana, run!" Anita stepped in front of me and tossed three cards at the teddy bear.

It blocked Anita's cards with a swipe of its paw, kicked her in the shin and tossed her by her other ankle away from the path.

"Babbit, get him!" I concentrated for a moment and dozens of Babbits piled on the teddy bear.

The teddy bear popped the Babbits closest to him and tossed the rest away. Then it jumped up and punched me in the jaw.

My head rang and I fell over backwards. I had never been hit that hard before. What exactly was this teddy bear made out of?

"Sana, use your Alice on him." Hotaru was working some sort of remote control device.

"I tried that. Babbit doesn't work on him. Ooof!"

The teddy bear had jumped up and stomped me in the gut.

"Not that. Your real Alice."

"That is my real Alice!" I summoned some more Babbits, but the teddy bear popped them.

"Sana!" Anita was leaning against a tree with one hand with cards in her other while keeping the ankle she'd been tossed by above the ground, "Toss him off so I can get a clean shot."

I tried putting my arms up to protect my head, but the teddy bear punched them away and went to work hitting me on either side of my face.

The teddy bear lifted me up by the collar and drew back his other paw for the finishing blow.

"Stop that, Mr. Bear." There was a angel standing there, even more beautiful than Naozumi Kamura. He had big white wings, but then the wings shifted behind him and were revealed to be part of a large cartoony looking pelican, flying overhead.

Mr Bear tossed me down and my head hit a rock. I passed out.

My forehead was pounding, but there was something cool and damp on it.

I opened my eyes and looked up up at a log ceiling. I was in a log cabin, next to a window and there seemed to be a bed under me. I reached up and felt the damp cloth on my forehead.

"Are you okay, Sana?" It was that angel. He was sitting in a chair next to the bed. Anita was sitting in another chair while Hotaru wrapped a strip of cloth around the ankle Anita had been thrown by. The wildflowers Mr. Bear had been carrying earlier were in a cup on the table in the center of the room.

"I think I'm okay. But my face must look a mess."

"Mr. Bear does get carried away at times, but don't worry about it. You look beautiful." He smiled and I couldn't bring myself to doubt him.

He doubled over coughing. Then he felt his pocket, "I forgot something!" The look of panic on his face was heartbreaking.

"Will these do?" Hotaru handed him three half-empty foil packs of pills.

"Yes," He looked them over, "This is it exactly. Oh." He looked at Hotaru.

"It seems we have something in common, Mr. Sono."

"Just call me Kaname," He thought for a moment, "And you've been so active."

"It keeps me busy," Hotaru turned to the door that had just opened.

Mr. Bear was standing there with a bucket of water.

Hotaru grabbed the bucket and Mr. Bear backed away. What could she do that would frighten him so?

She poured a glass of water from the bucket and Kaname drank it to wash down the pills.

"Kaname is Mr. Bear's creator." Hotaru accepted the packets with the remaining pills back from him.

"You're both unlimited class Alices. Making Mr. Bear cost you a piece of your life."

There was a clatter as a plate full of cookies dropped onto the table. Mr Bear turned, went down the tiny steps leading up to the table and moved to the door.

"Mr. Bear."

Mr. Bear reached for the door handle.

"Come here, Mr. Bear."

He turned to face Kaname.

"Sana doesn't know what she's talking about. Please come here," Kaname grabbed Mr. Bear as he walked up and sat him on his own lap, "Do you remember that first day, when you came alive?"

Mr. Bear nodded.

"I made you because I was all alone. I didn't have anybody to talk to and I couldn't even leave my room. I don't know how long I could have kept going like that, but then you woke up and became my only friend. You're not the one who took my life, you're the one who gave me a life."

Kaname hugged Mr. Bear tightly, but Mr. Bear wasn't looking at him. It was looking at me and even though its bead eyes did not change, somehow they were glaring hot anger right at me.

I turned away and thought for a moment. "That's what I did too. I made my own little brother because Mama couldn't."

"Oh, you have an Alice to animate objects also?"

"Like this."

A Babbit appeared. "Hi, I'm Babbit. Pleased to meet you, Kaname."

"It's an illusion?"

"No, it's solid enough."

At my whim, Babbit swooped down to the table and grabbed a bear face cookie.

Mr. Bear jumped up, popped Babbit, grabbed the cookie and presented it to Kaname.

"That wasn't very nice, Mr. Bear. Now give that to Sana please. Sorry about that."

"It's no problem."

Babbit reappeared in midair. "How does he pop me so easily?"

"Now you're just being thin skinned." I waved him off.

Mr. Bear stalked towards me and I crossed my arms in front of me. He threw the cookie at me and I just barely caught it.

"Mr. Bear, what's gotten into you today? So Babbit is just a puppet you can create at will?"

"Like your constructs, Babbit is fully autonomous," Hotaru grabbed a handful of cookies from the table while Mr. Bear's back was turned, "She even has him do her homework while she sleeps."

"I'm not sure that would be considered cheating here."

"It is, but Babbit is much smarter than Sana. He speaks at least a dozen languages. She's holding him and the rest of the class back."

"Don't say that about Sana, you meanie!" Anita winced as she tried to flex her ankle.

"My mistake. Most of the class."

The door opened and six highschool girls swarmed in. They placed four stuffed animals on the floor and these ran to Kaname. "Master! Master! We sensed that you had been released from the hospital."

"They speak?"

"Yours does," Hotaru sat down next to me, "So do Anna's cookies and a bunch of other things around here."

"Kaname, we brought you presents." "And flowers." "And the materials you need to make your stuffed animals."

"Oh, you shouldn't have." He smiled at the girls.

"That's right, they shouldn't have." I frowned at the girl carrying the fabric.

"Is something bothering you, Sana? Would you like me to make an animal friend for you?"

"No! I mean, I already have one." I grabbed Babbit from midair and hugged him tightly, but not so tight as to pop him.

"I wish I could make animals that flew." Kaname looked at Babbit for a moment.

One of the high school girls picked up one of the stuffed animals. "I love the one you made for me, just the way it is. I couldn't ask for a more perfect friend."

One of the girls who hadn't brought one of Kaname's animals in said, "Um, if you're going to be making more stuffed animals..."

"Sure, I can make one for you."

"And me too?" The other one asked.

"No problem."

I stood up. I was going to speak my mind. How could they, how could they ask for such a thing?

"Sana."

"Yes?" I turned to Hotaru.

"Can you give me a hand with Anita? We need to get her to proper care."

"Do you need a hand?" Kaname asked.

"No thanks. You're still recovering. We'll be fine." Hotaru got under one of Anita's arms and I got under the other and we helped her hop on her good ankle to to door.

Just outside the cabin a giraffe was nibbling on some tree leaves. No, it was a robot head on a four wheeled cart.

I got in the back of the cart with Anita and Hotaru sat up front at the controls. "Hold on you two, the path's a little bumpy."

"If you had a cart," Anita asked, "Why didn't you use it on the way here?"

"I didn't want Mr. Bear to damage it. It's a lot of hard work making these things. Sometimes I envy you two, with the ability to instantly create whatever you like, limited only by your imaginations. But then I remember that in the case of you two, that's a crippling limitation."

"Why did you stop me?" I asked Hotaru, "I was going to tell all of those highschool girl leaches how they were killing him."

"They all seemed happy enough."

"They, they must not know."

"How could he make people happy if they did know? They'd shun him and he'd be even more alone than he is now."

"But what kind of power is worth killing yourself for?"

"Why don't you complain when I use my Alice?"

"You're a smart girl. You know your limits, don't you?"

"And because he's cute you assume that he doesn't?"

"You don't spend all of your time in the hospital. How about you Anita, does using your power hurt you?"

"Not that I've noticed. I get a little tired if I focus real hard, but it's no big deal. When I came to in the library I was just a little winded, that's all."

"Why are the Alices so different?"

"You should ask your sister that when she returns." Hotaru didn't look away from the path. She seemed genuinely focused on providing a smooth ride for Anita.

"Mikan, she's got the ability to see Alices doesn't she? And she can heal them too. Do you think she could help Kaname?"

"Most likely, though she might have to sleep with him."

I frowned at Hotaru's back. "I know that what you mean is not what you imply, but still it creeps me out."

"You could try that yourself, Sana."

"I'm not Mikan! I just look like her. I thought you knew that by now."

"Oh, I don't know. What do you think Anita? Did it feel real good when Sana slept with you?"

"You scumbag!" Anita felt around herself, "Where's my papers?"

"I suppose we must have forgotten them back at Mr. Bear's cabin."

"Just you wait. You're going to get the most painful paper cut."

"Here you go Sana. You'd best get up to your room and get your homework done. I can take Anita to the hospital myself."

"The hospital?"

"It might just be a sprained ankle, or it might be something worse. Either way they've got somebody who can fix her up."

Anita walked to our table at dinner, carrying her tray. "Hi all."

"Hi Anita," Anna greeted her. "Good to see you're back with us," Nonoko added.

"You're walking again?" I looked around for Hotaru, but didn't see her.

"Yeah, they've got a real good healing Alice here."

After dinner I went and knocked on Hotaru's door.

"Come in Sana."

I walked in and saw she was in her bed, with her head on one pillow and a bandaged ankle on another. She put down her copy of 'My Daughter and I' and turned to me. Her half eaten dinner was on a tray on a table next to her bed.

"What happened to you?"

"Anita confirmed that I had been the one behind the little escapade today so my brother punished me."

"By hurting your ankle?"

"He does that."

"What a creep. So who ratted you out in the first place?"

"I did."

"You knew your brother was going to hurt you and you went to him anyway?"

"Normally I'd enjoy watching the tiny gears in your head slowly wind down to a bizarre conclusion, but I'm in too much pain at the moment so let's skip that and jump to this part. Do you remember what I said my brother's Alice is?"

"He heals and kills?"

"Those are your words, not mine. He heals and hurts. He transfers injury from one person into pain on another."

"If he hurts one person for each one he helps, it doesn't sound like he's gaining anything."

"He gains a lot. He turns injury that could take weeks or years to heal into pain that only lasts for a few days at most. The closer the donor and patient are to each other the less it hurts him. By showing up as the obvious donor for Anita I was admitting that I had something to do with it."

"His Alice hurts him?"

"That tends to run in a family. But he can't use his Alice on himself and he can't use it to fix Alice strain either."

"So he couldn't use it to help everybody in the world."

"We're special, but he is looking a little run down. So if you ever do meet your sister, please ask her to sleep with my brother."

"Your eyes are laughing, Hotaru."

"What?"

"You think you've got such a good poker face. And you can say whatever you like and act so innocent and lord it over the rest of us like a princess, but you're human too. I can catch of glimpse of the real you from time to time. The scared lonely little girl. Don't deny it. I've only known you a little while but it feels like I've known you all my life. I can see through your tricks. I've seen them all somewhere before."

"Mikan would never say something like that."

"I'm not my sister."

"No, you're not. Let's watch a movie."

"Huh?"

"I've got a question to ask, but I need you to see the movie first. It's all about you."

"Something you made?"

"No, it's that DVD."

I put it in her player then settled down next to her to watch, "Hey, it's black and white."

"It's a very old movie. Older than you."

So I lay beside her on her bed and we watched "Forbidden Planet".

As the credits rolled Hotaru turned off the TV with her remote then looked over at me. "So what did you think?"

"It's okay."

"What did you think of the Shakespeare reference?"

"What?"

"You're an actress. You've got to know Shakespeare's plays."

"Yeah, he did Romeo and Juliet, right?"

"Let me just get to my real question. What did you think of the Monster from the Id?"

"I guess it was kind of like an Alice?"

"Not just any Alice. Your Alice."

"Huh? I don't send out Babbit while I'm sleeping to go kill people."

"And why not?"

"My Mama didn't raise me to be a monster."

"As good an answer as any," Hotaru reached over to turn out the lights, then pulled the blanket over the two of us and pretended to sleep.

I knew I should just barge on past her, but she would pretend to be woken and that I had somehow disturbed her hurt ankle, so I settled down and was soon asleep myself.

The next morning Mr. Narumi showed up himself to teach first period. It was odd how Anita was walking normally, while Hotaru's crutch was leaning against her desk.

There seemed to be a bit of excitement in the air so I looked at Mr. Narumi as he addressed the class.

"It's that time of year again everybody. You all need to do your annual book reports, except of course for Anita who will be assigned an alternative activity."

"Sir!"

"Yes Anita? Did you have a movie or TV show you'd like to review?"

"I'd like to review this book Sir," Anita reached into her bag then without looking, dropped the book onto the table and then jerked her hands back before she read out the title, "It's 'My Daughter and I' by Misako Kurata."

"Oh, and Hotaru?"

Hotaru balanced herself against the desk as she stood on her good leg for a moment, "I will also be reviewing 'My Daughter and I'."

Anita quietly growled as Hotaru lowered herself back down.

"And Anna?"

"I will be reviewing 'The Gigolo and I' by Misako Kurata."

And so it went around the classroom with every student naming a book of Mama's. Even Ruka named a manga series she had written for. And then finally I was the only one left.

"And Sana, do you have a book in mind you'd care to review?"

I thought for a moment. "'Midnight' by Nenene Sumiregawa."

"Yes!" Sumire raised a fist in the air, "The martyr."

"Oh?" Mr. Narumi raised a hand to his chin.

"She was killed in Hong Kong by a bomb placed by anti-Alice terrorists." She explained, and the expression on her face made it clear that she thought he knew that already.

"I don't think that's ever been proven. She never was a student at the Academy."

"It's impossible to prove hate crimes against us when we don't officially exist."

"Well there is that, Hotaru. But I'm sure you'll come to value your anonymity once you graduate."

* * *

Next: Chapter Six: King and Princess 


	14. Sana's Alice, Chapter six

[Kodocha/Alice Academy/RoD] Sana's Alice By Henry J. Cobb

Gakuen Alice is the creation of Higuchi Tachibana. Kodomo no Omocha is the creation of Miho Obana. Read or Dream is the creation of Hideyuki Kurata. Ginban Kaleidoscope is the creation of Rei Kaibara. This parody is not intended to cause any damage to these properties.

This is the sequel to another story of mine called A Clockwork Tangerine.

Chapter Six: King and Princess

After classes I carried Hotaru's book bag and helped her into her giraffe cart.

She settled down into her seat then turned to me. "Sana, why did you pick Sumiregawa?"

"She was a friend of Mama's. She gave me a copy of her last book before she went to Hong Kong and now I feel guilty that I've never read it."

"Did you bring it with you?"

"Oh! I guess I kind of forgot."

"The Middle School library ought to have a copy. Let's go check. Anita's not allowed, after what her tantrum did to our library."

"It wasn't a tantrum! I'm not a little kid. But who wants to go to some dumb old library anyway? Nothing good ever came out of a book." Anita walked off towards our dorm.

I got in behind Hotaru and thought about what had happened to Nenene Sumiregawa. "Why do the Chinese hate Alices so?"

"They've got good reason to," Hotaru turned back to me as the giraffe followed the twists of the path on its own, "What do you know about Unit 731?"

"What?"

"Yes, that's kept out of the textbooks for a very good reason. The cover story is that it was a biological weapons program for use against the Chinese during the Second World War. And the truth is that it had been going on for a long time before that and continues to today. You are the result of it."

"But I'm not a biological weapon! Right Babbit?"

Babbit popped into existence on the seat next to me and was as supportive as usual. "I don't know Sana, you can be quite a terror with those mallets."

"I'm not like that at all!" I malleted him hard enough to pop him then dismissed the mallet with a nervous laugh.

Hotaru raised an eyebrow at this then continued, "I had heard a little bit about it before I came here, but dismissed the rumors. When I was forced to attend the Academy I quickly saw that I wasn't all that unusual, in this crowd. I put my head down and concentrated on my studies and inventions, but after a few months here I started having headaches. I had been perfectly healthy for the previous two years, but I remembered having headaches when I was younger so I went to see Mr. Narumi about it. Just for a moment his face showed such sadness. He took me to the hospital here and they gave me some pills that help a bit."

"The same pills you shared with Kaname?"

"Exactly. It's the same chronic condition. A few weeks later Mr. Narumi came to my room and said we were going on a trip to meet somebody. I asked him who it was and he said it was a secret. I was dressed in a very expensive looking kimono and driven along with Mr. Narumi to the Imperial Palace, which oddly enough isn't all that far from here. Then I was sent in alone to meet him in his study."

"The Imperial Palace? Who's there who'd want to meet one of us?"

"It was our school patron, the Emperor of Japan."

"What?"

"He was dressed in a business suit. He asked me to sit and then asked some questions about my inventions. He had obviously been well briefed about them. Then he stopped, smiled and thanked me, he said that he now knew that his father had been correct when he worked so hard to preserve the Academy and that if I needed anything I could ask him at any time. I felt another headache coming on and I finally knew what had been protecting me from them. So I asked if I could return home. He said that was the one thing he could not grant. I was precious to the nation and best protected at the Academy. He said he would gladly stand in front of the gate holding the imperial sword if he thought it would help."

"That's a bit much." I smiled at Hotaru's story.

"I was returned to my room and in my anger, and my pain, and my frustration, I used my Alice."

"To make an unstoppable weapon?"

"Well, not directly. I wrote a postcard. And it was crafted so that everybody in the world would see it as being just a bit odd, but the one target it was directed at would be hooked. She would simmer for a bit then come charging here and nothing on this Earth could stop her. I knew she would wail at the gate until they sent an Alice to stop her and I gambled that it would be Mr. Narumi. He would use his power against her and fail and know that she was an Alice. He would bring my Mikan to me and my pains would be gone. So you can see that it's entirely my fault that you were brought here."

"No, I'm the one who used my Alice on live television for years. The only one to blame for my attendance is me."

"Now you know why the Chinese hate you. So if you do become internationally famous then please don't tour there. I might need you someday."

The Middle School library had a complete collection of Nenene Sumiregawa's books and they where almost brand new, just like their Misako Kurata collection.

I was holding Hotaru's books as we walked to the checkout counter when a Middle School boy with a silly haircut walked up.

"Oh my poor sweet Hotaru, did you hurt yourself?"

"No, I hurt somebody else," Hotaru turned away then swiveled back on her crutch, "Shoda, I'd like you to meet somebody," She pointed towards me.

"This thing? I already know it well enough."

"It isn't Mikan. It's her twin sister, Sana Kurata."

"So?"

"She's famous. She had a hit TV series and already had a book written about her life. It's My Daughter and I, by her mother," she pointed at the book on the shelf.

"Oh," he walked over to the shelf.

We made our escape while he was distracted and then back in her cart I turned to Hotaru. "It? Is this how you're going to introduce me to all the Middle School boys? Well forget it, I've already got a boyfriend."

"And he's deeply in love with you? How many letters has he written you since you got here?"

"I... I haven't gotten any mail yet."

"Well tomorrow's mail day. If you don't hear from him by then I guess you should just write him off."

The next day Hotaru was walking normally and got a big pile of technical magazines, business correspondence and even a letter from her parents. I got nothing.

"Are you sure?"

"Nothing for miss Kurata." Ms. Takahashi, our robot matron shook out her empty mailbag.

"It's not fair! It's not fair!"

"Stop rolling around on the floor. You'll get your uniform dirty and you're giving Yuu a free show."

I sat up, looked at Hotaru and then Yuu. He was blushing and looking away.

Yome looked at him, "Mixed fruit print panties."

"I'm not thinking about it!" Yuu held his palms to his temples.

"Slap him Sana." Hotaru looked sidelong at him.

"Why? He seems condensed enough about it."

Babbit popped up, "You mean contrite, of course."

I summoned up a slingshot and nailed Babbit, but the summoned plastic pellet bounced off the wall.

Hotaru stopped the pellet with a ping pong paddle. "Be careful with that. But you don't understand the real danger. When Yuu gets too excited he tends to project whatever he's thinking."

Yuu blushed even more at that and ran from the classroom.

"Does every girl set him off like that?" I got up.

"No, just two." Anna watched him go.

I didn't recall the missing letters until after I left the classroom. That darn Hotaru, she distracted me on purpose. I wasn't looking where I was going so I bumped into somebody.

"Oh, Mr. Narumi! Sorry."

"You look very worried, Sana. If there's anything bothering you feel free to tell me about it," His smile seemed so sparkly.

"It's about the letters Sir. I don't see how I could have not gotten anything. Mama at least would write, I'm sure of it."

"Oh you do have a bunch of mail. The problem is in processing it. We're adding more people now and should have it sorted out in a few days."

"Oh, thank you. Thank you so very much." I bowed and stood there blushing as he walked off.

"And you believe him, right?" Hotaru walked up.

"Of course I - No I don't. He got me again."

"You recover quickly from his Alice."

"I must have only gotten a small dose this time. That scumbag."

"I know a way for you to see how much better the outside world is doing without Sana Kurata."

"And what is it going to cost me?"

"Most likely nothing except your delusions. I'm not the one who does it."

Hotaru led me back to the classroom, took her seat and nodded towards that girl with the gray hair and ageless eyes.

"Hi, I'm Sana." I held out my hand to the girl.

"Do you mind?"

"Oh, sorry."

"You want me to use my Alice for you."

"Uh, yes, I guess?"

"Do you mind if I do? I may see things that you do not wish seen."

"I entrust myself to your care upperclassman." I bowed.

"Please call me Yura. My power can be embarrassingly intimate. Are you sure that you should bare your soul to me?"

"My life's been published. And Hotaru has me under surveillance. I've got nothing left to hide here."

She clapped twice. "Let us begin." She took me by the hand and led me to a corner of the classroom that had been suddenly cleared. Three boys from our class were sitting on the floor with musical instruments. "Dance is the key to the soul. Dance with me and think of the one you want to see."

"Like this?" I took her other hand and moved up next to her, "Who leads?"

"No, stand there," She pushed me to the side, "And follow my motions."

As she started her dance I had a moment of confusion. Who was it that I wanted to see? Mama? She'd be fine, wouldn't she? It was Akito. He was so broken up that last day I saw him. Had he reverted to form? Was he still alive? I had to know.

The music played faster and faster and I kept up with the beat. My many years of dance classes were paying off at last. Suddenly the music stopped and I fell over.

"I see him," Yura held her wrist to her forehead, "That boy. He seems to be most distraught. He is walking alone. Wait! A girl is running up to him. She's taken his hand."

"What! Who?"

"Yuu?" Hotaru nodded to him.

Yuu stepped up and held out his hands.

Yura grabbed Yuu's hands and the classroom vanished. Suddenly we were next to a sidewalk near my old school. Akito was holding hands with Mami.

"No! It can't be. That witch!"

"Sana," Hotaru frowned at me, "Your language."

"No, it has to be an evil spell. I should have let him drown her when she called him a monster."

"He tried to drown her?"

"And then he choked me, but it's all okay now. No, it's not okay. This cannot be happening. Are you sure Yura?"

"Yes, I - Aaaah!" The outdoor scene vanished as Yura and Yuu dropped to their knees while clutching their heads.

"What?"

"It's the Barrier Alice. Usually it doesn't mind my Alice," Yura huddled on the floor, covering her eyes.

"Quick," Hotaru ordered, "Get them some water."

Hotaru had the lights turned off and the blinds drawn. The two victims were lain out on the ground with damp cloths on their foreheads.

"Someday," I raised a fist to the sky, "I'm going to find that Barrier Alice and it's going to pay for all the pain it's caused."

"She."

I turned to Sumire. "What?"

"The Barrier Alice is a woman. Sometimes in my dreams I can hear her singing. She wants to protect us. I'm sure of it."

"You call this protection?"

"Perhaps it's a good thing your psychopath is seeing other girls now."

"What?" I turned to Hotaru.

"Have you thought about the children?"

"Huh?"

"Don't you intend to have children some day?"

"Maybe, I suppose. Why?"

"It's the least you can do to repay Japan for all they've done for you, especially since your children will all be powerful Alices."

"I guess, if you say so."

"You've seen how the students here have struggled at the Unlimited Alice limit, but you're past that limit so you don't worry about it. It's no concern of yours. But if you have children with a non-Alice then perhaps they will be less powerful than you and stuck at the Unlimited Alice limit. That's no problem so long as Mommy's there to hold them and wipe away their pains, but what if something happens to you? Would you condemn your own children to lifelong pain. What kind of monster are you?"

"I don't understand," Yura sat up, "Can Sana heal strained Alices?"

"Not yet." Hotaru turned and walked out of the classroom.

That Hotaru! She's always confusing me with Mikan. But wait, if Mikan can help the unlimited Alices then there's one that must live to see her. But how? "Anita and Anna, can you see after these two?"

"Yes."

"What's up?" Anita asked me.

"I've got to go see someone."

I shoved open his door. I'd resolved not to be polite. I can play it tough and scary. I'm an actress after all.

Kaname was coughing at his desk. He put down the fabric, needle and thread and turned in his chair. "Sana, What brings you here? Would you like me to make you a doll?"

"No. I want you to meet somebody. Kaname Sono, this is Tazusa Sakurano."

He sat straight up in his chair and got a little more pale.

"Have you heard of me?" She stood there as hard and cold as the ice on a skating rink.

"Yes I have. Can I make you a doll, miss Sakurano?"

"That's upperclassman Sakurano to you, underclassman Sono. I imagine that they would speak of me in the Death Row wing of the hospital. Hopefully in whispers. If you know of me, then you know what I do. You will make that doll for me, with these hands." She held up her own.

"My power has a drawback."

"I'll use it sparingly." She walked over, leaned down and kissed him on the forehead. "I claim your soul for my own use, once you are done with it."

"I - I wouldn't want anybody else to be hurt by my gift."

"Then keep it to yourself. But when you tire of life, I'll be waiting."

I followed her out of the middle school dorm. "Do you think he bought it?"

"I was more worried the shock would kill him. That kiss of death was a great idea. Are you sure that Mikan's Alice can help his pain?"

"That's what Hotaru says."

"Hotaru?"

"Hotaru Imai. She's a student in our class and she's known Mikan for years."

"Imai, that's a pain."

"What?"

"It's just the only boy in my class that's never been frightened of me, but my existence annoys him. It suggests that there is something beyond the narrow realm of Alice Science. That perhaps there just might be gods watching and judging us. Philosophy class is a hoot."

That evening I was struggling with my English homework.

"Come on Sana," Babbit landed on my shoulder, "English isn't just a class. A lot of movies are produced by Hollywood. Are you going to depend on subtitles all your life?"

"It's still boring. Who do I know who can - Wait! Anita's a native English speaker. I'll go study with her."

I caught Anita walking out of her door. "Where are you going?"

"It's a secret. Please don't tell anyone." She looked around then walked downstairs.

I sent Babbit to follow her as I went to put my books back in my room then summoned another Babbit and followed him to Hotaru's workshop.

The main hangar doors were open so I peeked in. Anita and Sumire were drinking cartons of chocolate milk while Ruka looked over Hotaru's shoulder.

"This doesn't concern you Sana." Hotaru didn't look up from her computer.

The others turned my way as I walked in. "An interesting group you've gathered here tonight. How did you bribe Ruka, hold his bunny hostage?"

"Hardly. We're going to rescue your sister and he can't wait to get his hands on her."

"Th-that's not it. I just want to hear what she knows about Natsume."

"How can a mission to rescue my sister not concern me when I'm the one who's serving out her sentence here while she's out there enjoying a roman holiday?"

"And just like in that movie, she will return here to her duties and the entire episode will simply never have happened."

"What movie?"

"And you call yourself an actress. Take a look at this," Hotaru clicked on her mouse and a short video clip played on her computer. It was some news reporter talking about something, but then Hotaru froze the video and zoomed in on a fenced in and abandoned construction site in the background. The image was just a random pattern of huge pixels, but Hotaru clicked on a button and the image sharped until it showed me standing on the half completed building.

Wait, I hadn't been there so it must be Mikan. "How did you get such a clear picture out of so few pixels?"

"I write very good software. Now this was taken just yesterday so if we go tonight we should either find her or find evidence of where she's gone. I see that everybody's in school uniform. Do you all have your ID cards? We'll be at the limits of the school's detection range so if we get separated, get to higher ground with a clear view to the southwest."

"If we're escaping why do we want the school to track us?"

"We're not escaping," Sumire tossed her empty milk carton in Hotaru's wastepaper basket, "We're just heading out to pick up your sister and we'll be right back. You really are as dumb as you look."

"And this is how we'll get there," Hotaru pointed at a streamlined car sized vehicle that looked like an animal, down to its duck bill nose and four webbed feet, "The Platypus Nine, supersonic VTOL transport."

"Why did you call it the Platypus Nine?"

"Because the Platypus Eight was a mp3 playing bathtub floatie. I downloaded a Sana's greatest hits songbook for it."

"That's piracy!"

"Want a copy?"

"Sure."

"Oh Sana," Babbit popped in, "What will your Mama say when she learns that her daughter has started on a life of crime?"

"But I'm only stealing from myself."

"No excess Bat-tage please. We're close enough to the weight limit because of Sumire."

Sumire leaned over Hotaru. "I'm only heavier because I'm older and you've got an eating disorder. I'm not fat."

"Okay, you three," Hotaru stood, walked over to the vehicle, opened the door and slid the pilot's seat forwards then pointed at me, Sumire and Anita, "Get in the back."

"All three of us in there?"

"What? Are you too fat to fit?"

Sumire glared at Hotaru then wiggled in. I followed and then Anita. Hotaru slid her seat back as Ruka got in the other front seat.

The vehicle rose on its four feet and shuffled out onto a concrete slab. Then the four feet swiveled up and revealed jet engines, which started. We rose ten meters, then the jet feet tilted forwards and we began to pick up speed.

"Transition to lifting body flight successful," Hotaru checked her gages, "That's a good sign."

"A good sign?" I asked, "Haven't you tested this before?"

"I had to extrapolate from American Quad Tilt Rotor research, but it'll be fine. Now to build up some speed before attempting the barrier."

"Attempting?"

"It should be weakest near the top, I think."

We moved faster and faster as we circled out from Hotaru's workshop then just before the fence we were pushed back in our seats as it did a sharp turn and we soared towards the sky.

"The engines! They're on fire!"

"That's the afterburners. Don't you know anything?" Sumire squeezed my hand tightly.

"Sound barrier," Hotaru adjusted a control as a loud crack sounded around us, "And now the school barrier."

I felt something like a static charge all over my body as there was a crackle and all of the lights inside the aircraft went out. With a jolt the jet engines went silent and the only noise was the wind rushing outside as the horizon started to tilt towards us.

"They seem to have upgraded the barrier lately," I could dimly see Hotaru fold down her front panel and start disconnecting circuits inside, "Give me a moment here."

"Aiiiii!"

"Shut her up," Hotaru bit through two wires then connected them together.

Sumire clamped one hand over my mouth as she held on with the other and Anita tickled me.

Hotaru slammed her control panel closed as the ground spiraled up at us then hit a button and the lights came back on as did the jets, accelerating us right towards the ground.

We were pushed back down into our seats again as the craft made a sharp tilt up and came level less than a meter from a roadway.

"Truck!" Ruka covered his eyes.

Hotaru swerved us to the left and then quickly snapped back right to avoid another truck.

"Building!" Ruka peeked for a moment then covered his eyes again.

"Yes. What am I doing? No need to stay low. We want them to pick us up on radar," We climbed above the skyline, "Transponder on. Flight KGB007 is live."

"How are they going to explain this to the air traffic controllers?" I asked her.

"Would you leave Tokyo air traffic control in the hands of ordinary humans?"

A few minutes later the jet legs swiveled up again and we came down to land in the construction site.

We got out and I shifted from foot to foot as I stretched my legs, "How are we going to fit Mikan in there also?"

"I haven't decided yet. Either we tie her up and toss her in the trunk or she rides back on Ruka's lap."

Sumire walked over and looked down (well down one centimeter) at Hotaru.

Hotaru ignored her and looked around. "Actually the school will send somebody to come collect us all in a few minutes so let's hurry and search."

"Are you sure this is where she was?" Anita looked around.

"Yes, now they may have cleaned out yesterday or this might be a trap, so be careful."

A dozen European soldiers with assault rifles stepped out of the shadows and surrounded us.

"British special forces in full battle gear. How did they get all that through customs?" Hotaru raised an eyebrow.

"Don't be so calm about it." Sumire looked back and forth, but stayed human.

"If they were North Koreans I'd be worried, but these are allies. I'm sure they've got a very good reason for this."

"Anita!"

"What?" Anita looked over at the source of the voice.

"How's daddy's little princess doing?" A short plump man with balding red hair that had a turned a bit gray at the temples stepped past the troops. He wore a tweed suit and radiated joy.

"Who are you?" Anita held a white card in each hand.

"I'm your father Jimmy. It's me, Professor James King of Oxford. You don't remember me at all?" The joy slipped from his face.

"Here, Mikan, show her this," Professor King took a black book from his jacket and held it out towards me.

"Sure," Another girl in our school uniform stepped up, took the book from his hand then tossed it to Anita, "Here you go." Then she stopped and looked at me.

Everybody stopped, looked at her and then me. She was my exact duplicate.

Everybody that is, except for Anita, who was flipping through the pages of that book. It was a book of photographs.

I turned to my doppelganger. "You're Mikan, my twin sister, right?"

"Uh yes, why of course I am. Who are you?" Mikan seemed to shimmer as she dodged a pair of shoes that passed just over her head.

"You could have at least waited until we found out what other Alices they had," Hotaru complained as Sumire leapt past her.

"Busy," Sumire had her dog ears, cat's whiskers and dug her toe claws into the concrete as she bounded forwards, "Now 'Mikan', just stand there while I disembowel you please."

"What's going on here?" I turned to Hotaru.

"Your real sister does not have a Tokyo accent with a bit of British slang mixed in."

"Curse the complexities of your confounded language!" Mikan's voice changed to that of a man and she vanished.

"Ruka, get help!"

He nodded to Hotaru, ran towards our vehicle then turned and ran around a corner. Two soldiers tried to follow him but rats dropped from the ceiling onto their faces.

Sumire passed through the spot the fake Mikan had been and dug the claws of all four limbs into a wall. As she jumped back, she got punched in the face by an invisible fist.

"How well can you fight an invisible foe?" The man who had worn Mikan's face asked.

"I've got other senses." Sumire struck in the direction of the unseen man's voice but got punched again.

"None of those are as fast as light. Ow!"

Sumire sunk her fangs into something unseen then got kicked back. "Neither are you." She bounded after a trail of blood that appeared on the ground.

The soldiers turned towards Sumire.

That was my cue. I stepped forwards and swept out my arms. "Babbit get them!"

Dozens of Babbits appeared and attacked the soldiers. "Coochie coochie coo!" "Coochie coochie coo!" "Coochie coochie coo!"

Professor King said something in English.

Another Babbit appeared next to me. "Sana, run! He said the bats are an illusion, and that they should shoot Mikan."

"Now that's just silly. You're not an illusion and I'm not Mikan."

There was a loud noise, a sharp pain in my gut and I slumped backwards to the ground. All of the Babbits vanished.

"Sana!" Hotaru ran towards me, but she was shot in the thigh and fell over.

"Sana?" Anita looked towards me and dropped the book. Her face became paler than usual and her freckles stood in sharp relief. She turned towards the soldiers, "You, you..." She said some more, but it wasn't in English or Japanese. Whatever it was it didn't sound very nice at all. Only Professor King seemed to understand it and it made his face turn paler. Then she started throwing cards at them.

Two of the soldiers fell and the rest turned to Professor King who said something else in English.

Where was Babbit when I needed him to translate? And then I saw Babbit as a pattern on Anita's panties as she rolled into a handstand then continued to launch cards at the enemy. You go get them Babbit.

One of the soldiers tossed a grenade at Anita. She cut it in half with a card but it released a cloud of gas around her. She dropped to the floor and all of the cards she had in midair slowed down and fluttered to the ground.

Sumire leapt into the cloud and jumped out with Anita in her arms but then fell forwards into Ruka's arms. Behind Ruka was a black bear, two deer, a half dozen monkeys, a few dozen squirrels, a swarm of rats and a lot of birds.

He looked at me and his face dropped. He turned to the soldiers and quietly ordered, "Kill them." Then he dragged the two girls around the corner.

The soldiers turned their guns on the larger animals, but just barely managed to drag their wounded away from the berserk horde of smaller critters.

As the sounds of their struggles faded off in the distance a silver hemisphere blinked into existence on the ground then vanished, leaving behind a half dozen highschool students from the Academy.

"Sana!" Tazusa ran up to me and dropped to her knees, "Are you still alive?"

"Yes, I'm," I coughed, "Fine."

Tazusa sat down next to me, cradled my head in her lap and removed her anti-Alice bracelet. "Don't worry Sana, I'm here for you, dead or alive."

"But I can't die yet, I'm too young and too pretty."

As I faded off I could hear Hotaru arguing with one of the highschool boys, "No! Don't touch me! Save Sana first. Please."

"Sorry little sister, but I have my orders. And if we lose you I'll have to write to our parents and I really don't know what to say to them."

* * *

Next: Chapter Seven: Firewalking in the dark 


	15. Sana's Alice, Chapter seven

[Kodocha/Alice Academy/RoD] Sana's Alice By Henry J. Cobb

Gakuen Alice is the creation of Higuchi Tachibana. Kodomo no Omocha is the creation of Miho Obana. Read or Dream is the creation of Hideyuki Kurata. Ginban Kaleidoscope is the creation of Rei Kaibara. This parody is not intended to cause any damage to these properties.

This is the sequel to another story of mine called A Clockwork Tangerine.

Chapter Seven: Firewalking in the dark

"Ow!" I sat up clutching at the tearing pain in my gut. I just concentrated on my breathing until it got down to a dull throb then opened my eyes.

I was in a hospital room. Hotaru was sleeping in a wheelchair next to my bed. She had a cast on her leg.

She had been shot, hadn't she? I had been shot. Somehow I was alive, but was I me anymore? I looked around.

"What is it?" Hotaru straightened up in her chair.

"Quick! Get me a mirror!"

"Here you go," She handed me a handmirror.

I snatched it up and looked at the reflection of my own face, except I had pig ears and snout, "Aiiii!"

"Oh sorry, I must have left it on," Hotaru flipped a switch on the back and the animal features faded away leaving my ordinary face.

"How could you be so cruel to somebody who almost died?"

"It's your own fault for standing around while people were shooting at you. And you weren't even the primary target."

"What?"

"They were after Anita," Hotaru handed me the black book Anita had dropped.

I took it with one hand but reached for my gut with the other, "Ow! Why does it hurt so much? Anita was healed up without any aches."

"As for that. When I saw you breathing here yesterday it was the first time I'd ever been happy that I had a brother."

"Had?"

"He pushed his Alice too hard to save you. He's in a coma down the hall."

"Oh, sorry."

"I'll get a nurse for you," She rolled towards the door.

"Yeah," Tazusa stood in the doorway, wearing a hospital gown like mine and Hotaru's, "Where have all the nurses gone?"

"You got hurt also?"

"You're a real pain in the gut Sana. Imai, well her brother, used me to fix you up, but next time you're on your own."

I looked at her wrist. "You're not wearing your bracelet."

"My Alice has already been triggered. I've got 97 more days before I have to worry about it again."

"But if Hotaru and I are here, then who did you reap?"

"Do you two promise never to reveal the answer, especially to Ruka?"

"Sure."

"Hotaru?"

"I promise," She crossed her fingers behind her back where I could see them but Tazusa couldn't.

"Japan's greatest comedian hit a deer in the middle of the highway next to your battle and died in a one person and one deer car crash."

"Oh!" I could see why we couldn't tell Ruka about that.

"He's been making jokes non-stop since we got here and the worse part is that it only hurts when I laugh. Which hurts him also of course. Ow! Nurse, my tummy aches. Kiss it and make it better please. Oh, you think that's funny do you?" Tazusa staggered off and Hotaru followed.

I opened the black book and flipped through it. It was all photographs. All of them had a very young girl who looked like Anita or a red haired woman with glasses in her late twenties or early thirties, mostly the two of them together. A slightly younger, or at least less bald, version of Professor King was also in a lot of the photographs. The photos were taken at different places and there were some other people in some of them. The signs were in English and the people seemed to be mostly European. So it had to be America or the UK or somewhere else in the former British empire.

It was an obvious fake. How could a four year old girl read so many books, especially Anita? On the last page I stopped. The young Anita was sitting between the red haired woman and another woman. The other woman had long dark hair and really big glasses. She was in her early twenties. "Bring me Anita!"

"Sana!" Anita showed up at the doorway in her school uniform, "You're awake. I'm so very very sorry that I just stood there and you-"

"Come here."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," She bowed to me.

"No, look at this," I held up the book.

"It's a fake. How could I read so many books?"

"I know this woman!"

"What?"

"She was the first Alice I ever met. She was a friend of Mama's. What was her name? Auntie, Auntie Reedy or something like that."

"Are you sure?"

"I haven't seen her in five years, but this is exactly what she looked like then."

"And this girl looks like a five years younger version of me. How did they know to include somebody you knew?"

"They can't have. It isn't a fake. Professor King is your father and this red haired woman has to be your mother. You've got a family."

"No. He had you shot. That's unforgivable. I don't have a father. The next time I see him, he dies," She turned away.

"Anita!"

She ran off crying.

"Anita, wait! Ow!" I tried to get up but the pain in my abdomen stopped me, "Nurse, my tummy hurts!" I looked around to see if Babbit was laughing at me but he wasn't there. I couldn't feel him in the back of my mind either.

It seemed like forever, but the nurse finally did show up. He was really cute and I wanted to talk with him longer, but the pain pills he gave me cut in and I faded off.

Sometime later I was awoken by a strange sensation. I lay there with my eyes closed and tried to figure out what it was. It was Babbit, he was starting up. I opened my eyes, folded my hands on my chest and waited.

A minute later Babbit popped up above me, "Sorry to wake you Sana."

"No, it's okay. I've been bored lying around all this time. Where have you been?"

"Oh, I've been down."

"How come Anita loses her Alice when she's knocked out but you go away only when I'm really badly hurt?"

"I'm no expert on Alices."

"You keep saying that and I don't believe you. You know something about yourself that you're hiding from me."

"I will never hurt you, Sana."

"Then let me be the judge of things," I reached for the black book and flipped to the photo with the woman I knew, "Who is this?"

"You called her Auntie Reedy."

"No, what's her real name?"

"I don't know. It was probably told to you at some point but I don't remember."

"Why not? You remember everything else."

"That was from before I woke up. All you had were Babbit puppets at the time."

Hotaru and I were released that night and the next morning I found myself in front of Anita's door, "Come on, you're going to be late for class."

"I'm not going." Anita replied from behind her door.

"Why not?"

"All I do is get you hurt. I'm just going to stay right here."

"I think I recall hearing Hotaru say that's she's rigged several death traps in the classroom for me that only a clever Paper Master can disarm."

Anita opened her door. "You're conspiring with her, aren't you?"

I dragged her outside to where Hotaru was waiting in her giraffe cart.

Ruka walked up to my desk before class, and looked down at his feet. "I'm sorry I wasn't there in time to help you."

"No, no. You and Sumrie saved the day. It turns out the entire thing was a trap to kidnap Anita and you two kept her out of their clutches." I pulled out the black book. "Anna, can you look at this?"

Anna walked over to pick up the photo book. "Are these pictures of Anita?"

"It seems that way, but this red haired woman looks a little bit like you. Is it anybody you know?"

"No, I don't think so, but we can go ask my parents."

"How can we go to your parents?"

"They work in Central Town."

"That's the shopping mall?"

"Yeah, we get allowance on Saturday so why doesn't everybody come down to our cafe then?"

"Drumming up business?" Nonoko looked up from a copy of Mama's The Last Alchemist.

"It's a high rent district." Anna handed me back the photo album, but Hotaru snatched it away.

Why didn't the other students ask me about Mama's books for their reports?

"You didn't write them and you've been in a coma for a few days."

"Yes that makes sense. Hey! It's common courtesy to allow me the illusion of the privacy of my own thoughts," I looked at Yome's copy of Mama's The Open Man, "Is there any Alice Mama didn't write about?"

"Yours." Hotaru flipped through the black photo album, taking notes.

Classes were the same as always until Mr. Jinno walked in. "Imai and Kurata, once again you two have caused major troubles for the entire school. I should have you two shot, but you seem to have managed that yourself already. I despair of Kurata ever learning any better, but I expected better from you, Imai. You will prepare a report for me due tomorrow that lists all of your mistakes that endangered yourself and your classmates. I will review it this weekend and perhaps will require you to present it to the class on Monday."

"Yes, sir."

That afternoon Mr. Narumi gave me a big sack of mail.

I saw Hotaru to her door and I was about walk back to my room, when she reached out and grabbed me with her arm that wasn't holding the crutch, "Hold on a while. I want to check something out."

"I was going to sort through all this."

"You can do it in my room."

"Okay."

"You seem to be quite the popular girl." Hotaru looked up from her computer as I sat on her bed and did a quick triage of the few letters I had to respond to immediately, the many I'd get back to at some point, and the pile that went right in the trash.

I stopped when I saw one of the return addresses.

"What's the matter, Sana?"

"It's from my unsister."

"Unsister?"

"Mariko Sakai, her mother came closest to being my real mother, but Mama had her doubts. The blood tests showed that we weren't related. Mama hired a PI and found out that Keiko's first baby was stillborn. I still like Mariko and she still thinks I'm her big sister, but her mom's a little crazy."

"Mariko's going to be very upset when she finds out that you've hid the truth from her."

"When, when that day comes I'll tell her the real truth. That she's my one and only unsister. No offense to Mikan. I wonder what Mikan's like?"

"She's as crazy as you, in the same way. She also thinks that the world is full of good people and if only she sets a good example then so will everybody else and the world will be a better place. She's hopelessly hopeful and so are you," Hotaru turned back to her computer. "I got him."

"Found our perp?"

"Yeah, go get Anita."

"Show me what you've got, so I can go kill him." Anita stood in Hotaru's doorway and shied away from the bookcases.

"It's him alright, James King, professor of Ancient Literature at Oxford and he's on the board of the British Library Service."

"He's a librarian. As if I didn't have enough reason to hate him. What does it say about me?"

"No mention of a daughter in the pages I've found, but he had a wife."

"Had?" I turned to Anita, but she didn't seem to get the implication yet.

"She died five years ago. Mrs. Alice King. She's a match for our red haired woman."

"Alice?" Anita asked Hotaru.

"It's a common enough British name."

"Did you find anything about their Alices?", I reached out a hand for Anita, but when she didn't respond so I put it on her shoulder.

"No connection to the Academy or Japan that I can find."

"Five years ago? Did Anita's mother die in the terrorist attack?"

Anita looked up at me puzzled, then she looked down at the floor as she worked it out.

I wrapped my other arm around her.

"No, she died a few months later, but I can't find the cause of death. Perhaps it was from injuries suffered in the attack."

"It's okay Anita, you can let it out."

"I don't know what to feel."

"At least you still have your father. I don't know if either of my birth parents are still alive."

Anita broke free of my grip, "He probably killed her too. I'll avenge you and her as soon as I can." She walked off.

"Anita!"

"Let her be for a bit."

"Why?"

"We'll need to drag her to Central Town on Saturday."

"Why?"

"Anna's parents may know something."

"But we've got it all worked out, right?"

"Are you certain that Mr. Jinno really meant it when he talked about Anita's mother?"

"Yes, no doubt at all."

"But Alice King never attended this Academy and Mr. Jinno never left Japan. So how exactly did they meet?"

After classes on Friday, Tazusa ran up to me with a smile on her face. "Sana!"

"Hi, what's the occasion?"

"This guy in my head keeps bugging me with silly jokes. I finally made a deal with him to avoid being the lead speaker at his funeral, but I need your help."

"Sure," I could see that her smile was a little pained, "What is it?"

"This ghost wants me to ghostwrite his autobiography and I really need your mother's help to do it justice."

"Oh sure, Mama can use her Alice to..." I waited for Babbit to pop in then continued myself when he didn't, "Mama's an Alice! She gets Hotaru's invention concentration expression whenever she's writing."

"Any Alice can see it in her writing. I guess you were just too close to her to notice it before. For my senior project I can ask for the assistance of an outside Alice. I know your mother wasn't a student here, but I doubt they'll turn down my request, if she agrees."

"And I can see her when she comes to meet with you."

"Of course. Will you ask her?"

"Yes, absolutely."

"Great. Let me know as soon as you get word back."

I watched her go.

Mama's an Alice. I should have seen it the first time Hotaru used her Alice in front of me. I should have seen it when Mama used her Alice. No wonder she was so cool with my Alice. Why didn't she ever tell me? And Grandmama, was she afraid I'd turn out just like Mama? Well no wonder why Mama never wanted to go back to Kusatsu.

Saturday we had a half day of classes as usual then they handed out our allowance. As we were waiting for the bus Yoichi ran up. "Auntie Sana!"

"Well hello, Yo-chan!" I picked him up.

"Gotta hide quick."

"Why?"

"Yo-chan!" Yoko turned the corner and walked up to us.

"You two know each other?"

"Nope!"

"We're both in the A-section of the Elementary branch," She looked up at Yoichi, "Are we going to Central Town?"

"Sure." I put Yoichi down.

"Then it's a date," she took his hand.

Babbit popped up next to Yoichi and stage whispered to him, "If you don't like her holding your hand, why don't you use your Alice on her?"

"But she likes it." Yoichi looked down at his feet.

At Central Town Hotaru made a beeline for the Umenomiya cafe and I dragged Anita along.

The Umenomiyas looked over the black book as their daughter Anna put on her waitress apron. "No, I don't see anybody I know, do you dear?"

"No, wait," Mrs. Umenomiya stopped at the last photo and pointed at the dark haired woman in glasses, "That's got to be Yomiko Readman."

"Yes, of course it is. She was one grade higher than us. Didn't she go abroad after graduation?"

"Yes, to Oxford. I remember her Alice. She was always fiddling with paper, folding up little paper butterflies and having them fly around and stuff."

"Like this?" Anita folded a butterfly from a paper card.

"Yes, that's it."

The paper butterfly flapped its wings, flopped over, fell off the table and fluttered to the ground.

"But I think she was a little better than that when she was your age, Anita dear."

That evening Yoko and Yoichi looked so peaceful as they snuggled up together asleep on the bus ride back. I almost didn't want to wake them, but I had to get them off the bus and back to their rooms.

"Let me give you a hand with those two, Sana." Mr. Narumi was standing next to me.

"Uh sure, I uh."

"Could you tag along with me for a bit?" He picked up the pair and carried one in each arm.

"Yes." I wanted to run, but I could feel his compulsion dragging me along.

We dropped the two off and I turned to escape, but Mr. Narumi grabbed my hand.

"There's something I need your help with."

I followed him to the faculty houses and we stopped in front of his door.

"I know it's a bit of a bother Sana, but I'm taking a trip and there's something I need you to do for me."

"Sure, anything." I looked up into his eyes. I wanted to jump up into his arms and kiss him right then and there. I didn't mind who saw. The things I wanted to do with him. The need was almost painful.

"Great," He opened his door, "I'd like you to meet somebody."

A girl just a little younger than me was sitting in his living room. She raised her head as we walked in.

"Aoi Hyuuga, I'd like you to meet Sana Kurata, she'll be looking after you while I'm gone for a bit." he held out my hand towards Aoi and she didn't react until my fingers touched hers and then she reached out with both of her hands and felt mine. Her eyes weren't looking at anything. She was blind.

"Nice to meet you." I held her hand.

"You sound like you're around my age. Can I?"

"Sure." I lifted her hands up to feel my face.

She leaned over and sniffed me, "You smell nice also."

"Uh, thanks."

"Aoi's bed and things have been moved to your room already, Sana. But I need to show you her Alice before I go," Mr. Narumi grabbed Aoi's wrist and held her fingers in a flame from a lighter he held in his other hand, "Do you feel that, Aoi?"

I stood there slack jawed. How could he?

"Yes, it's warm and flickery."

"It's called fire, Aoi. And you must tell everybody around you when you feel it. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir."

I grabbed her hand and felt her fingers. She was unburned.

"As you can see Aoi cannot be harmed by fire. It's part of her Alice, but she lost her memory and her sight in a fire and has yet to recover."

In a blaze of anger I shook off his Alice. "The same fire that cost Anita so much?"

"No, a different one. A few years later. Now if you two will return to your room please? I'm sorry, but I really must pack."

I led her back to our dorm by the hand. "Hyuuga. I've heard that name someplace before."

"That's Natsume's name." Babbit popped up.

"Who's there?"

"It's just Babbit. He's my Alice. Do you have an older brother named Natsume?"

"No, my big brother's name is Persona. Have you seen him? He hasn't come to visit me in months."

"He won't be back."

"Did something happen to him?"

"No, I just have a feeling that he won't be back, sorry." That's because my sister killed him.

"Oh. What's an Alice?"

"I really wish I knew."

There was a second bed setup in my room, but that night after I had to lead Aoi by the hand to the bathroom I led her back to my bed.

There was a few sets of the school uniform in her size in my closet, but other than that I didn't find anything new.

In the morning after our shower I stopped while brushing her short hair and looked at the reflection of her eyes in the mirror that looked at nothing.

"Is there something wrong, Sana? I'm sorry to be such a bother."

"No, it's just that I wish I had an extra pair of eyes to lend you." I looked back up the mirror and saw Babbit gathering my hair into pigtails. "I'm the only one who does."

After a few seconds of silence Babbit said, "Sana, what are you thinking?"

"Come here you," I grabbed him out of midair and handed him to her. "Aoi, this is my Alice."

"It feels like an animal?"

"I'm Babbit!"

"And talks too?"

"Even better, he sees with his own eyes even when I'm not looking." I took him back, folded my hands over him and closed my eyes as I concentrated. I opened my eyes and looked at the dark sunglasses with a tiny Babbit in the middle. "Babbit, are you still there?"

"Help, I'm stuck!" He complained.

"Good," I put the sunglasses on Aoi, "Are these okay?"

"I guess," She put her hands up and felt the sunglasses, "What is this?"

"It's still Babbit, but as sunglasses. I used my Alice to change him."

"Oh."

"Yes, I know it doesn't make any sense, but it works. Now Babbit, I want you to wiggle when you see that Aoi's about to make a misstep. Can you do that?"

"Sure."

I led her by the arm down the stairs, but let Babbit guide her down the hallway and she managed to follow me to our table in the cafeteria while holding her own tray. I had her take Anita's place next to me, as Anita hadn't shown up yet.

Nonoko and Anna where already there. "You seem to have picked up a new fan, Sana."

"This is Aoi Natsume, she has an Alice of fire and these are Anna and Nonoko, classmates of ours."

"Nice to meet you."

"What is it Babbit?" Aoi asked her sunglasses.

"Anna has her hand out. I think she wants to shake yours."

"Oh." Aoi lifted her hand, bumped it into the table then moved it up and Anna grabbed it with a puzzled look on her face.

"Aoi!" Ruka got up from where he'd been sitting between Hotaru and Sumire, ran over and pulled Aoi from her chair, "It's you. It's really you. But how can that be? I went to your funeral."

"Who is it?" Aoi tried to pull away from his embrace.

"She's blind."

"Oh. It's me, Ruka. Natsume is going to be so happy when he hears you're alive."

"I'm sorry, but I don't know you."

"And she's lost her memory."

"Aoi has the same Alice as Natsume?" Nonoko asked Ruka.

"Yes, exactly the same." He released Aoi and with Babbit's help she found her seat again.

"Isn't that a little dangerous, to have the ability to create fires, but not to see them?"

"Mr. Narumi told me to tell everybody when I felt fire."

"And Babbit will pass on the word, so it's no big deal." I wondered for a moment if I could, or should, share Babbits out to every student. Better than having Kaname do it.

Ruka went back to his seat and hardly noticed as the two girls competed to feed him.

Anna watched as Aoi slowly ate with her chopsticks then looked up when she saw Nonoko and I were watching her. "How does she do that?"

"The Babbit sunglasses I made are guiding her."

"That's a clever use of your Alice," Nonoko looked at the sunglasses, "That's hard plastic instead of a plastic balloon?"

"I can also make plastic fabrics, but they chafe after a while. So I only wear them for quick disguises."

"Chemically these are all very different. Can I have a sample to test?"

"How about it Babbit, want to be dissolved in acid?"

"You don't have to create monsters, Sana. You are one."

"Sorry, but it won't work. Babbit here always pops down to nothing."

"There are non-destructive techniques. Let me get back to you on that."

"It's strange to have everybody talking to my sunglasses."

"Oh, sorry," I popped another Babbit into existence, "How are you today Babbit?"

"Lightly multitasking."

"There is more than one Babbit?" Aoi raised her head at the sound of his voice.

"Sana can make hundreds of them. She's one of the top Alices at the school."

"Oh come on, Anna. Making hundreds of balloon animals didn't keep me from getting shot."

"Somebody shot you?" Aoi turned her head towards me, but continued to eat with her Babbit guided chopsticks.

"Yes, but they've got an Alice here who can fix up anything. Maybe he can heal your eyes, when he's feeling better."

"What did happen on your secret mission?" Nonoko elbowed Anna to stop gawking at Aoi.

"I'll let Hotaru give the full report to the class on Monday, but we stumbled into a trap with British special forces until the highschool group showed up to bail us out. They had a fake Mikan to lure Anita there. Here's Anita now," I waved to her, but she saw that Aoi was in her usual spot so turned away.

"Anita." Hotaru indicated the seat opposite her own.

Anita sat down and Hotaru talked with her for a bit. She was trying to get some sort of information out of Anita, but they were too far away for me to hear them. I considered popping a Babbit over there, but I'm not a snoop.

"So what are your plans for today Aoi?"

"I don't know, Nonoko. Do we go to a school? What day is it?"

"It's Sunday and I'll show you around the Academy. I'm new at making Babbit parts to help people. So I'd like to keep an eye on you for a while to see if I need to make any adjustments. And, Babbit?"

"Yes, Sana?"

"Answer any question Aoi has."

"Anything?"

"Use your digression."

"You mean discretion."

"That too, but you can be as subtle as a bat's tongue when you choose."

I took Aoi out for a walk near the forest and she stopped and held up her hands. "What is this? It feels warm."

"It's sunlight. Haven't you felt it before?"

"No, with big brothers Persona and Narumi I was always in rooms where everything was the same cool," She looked over when the wind blew through the leaves, "What's that?"

"Those are trees."

"Are they dangerous?"

"No, go ahead and feel their bark, they won't bite. Watch your step." I was tempted to lead her by the arm, but I trusted in Babbit.

A leaf brushed past her face and she felt it and the branch it was attached to. "This is cool."

"Yes, it's a living thing, but not warm like people. Instead it's as cold as Babbit."

"At least you didn't call me cold blooded this time," the sunglasses complained.

"Oh you're bloodless." I sang a line from the next song Hotaru wanted us to record, "But all that slithers is cold."

"Babbit sunglasses?" Yoichi was standing on the path, "Let me see them," He reached out his arm and ghosts boiled off of it, circled around Aoi, grabbed her sunglasses and brought them to Yoichi, "They're all black?" He took them off again, "How come? And who she?"

"I'm Aoi Hyuuga." She felt around herself.

"Liar! Natsume told me his sis is dead. Liar, liar, liar!" Yoichi summoned more ghosts and they crawled over Aoi.

She tried to bat them away with her arms while she ran back to the path and then along the path for a ways before dropping down and cowering under the assault.

"Babbit, stop him!"

"With pleasure!" A few dozen Babbits smothered Yoichi's small body, "Coochie coochie coo!" "Coochie coochie coo!" "Coochie coochie coo!"

Yoichi's ghosts vanished and he curled up into a ball, dropping the Babbit sunglasses.

"Are you ready to behave yourself?" I walked up and the Babbits cleared off him.

"It's a lie!" He got up and ran away.

I picked up the Babbit sunglasses. They looked as good as new. Well they were only a few hours old. Then I walked back to Aoi, who was sitting on the path just short of the shade of the trees. "Are you okay, Aoi? Why did you stop there? Did you fall and hurt yourself?"

"No, the path stops here," She felt with her hand into the shade, "It doesn't?"

"You can see the path?"

"I don't know what seeing is like, but it's warm, like sunlight," she pointed along the path in front of her, "And then it continues over there," She pointed back over her shoulder without looking, at the next sunlit part of the concrete path past the shade.

"That's your Alice. You feel heat. People are also warm. Can you sense me?"

"I can hear you," She turned her head in my direction but just sat there until my hand was just in front of her face before reaching out with her hands to feel mine. She took the Babbit sunglasses from my hand, put them on and followed me in to lunch.

That evening I couldn't concentrate on Sumiregawa's book because I could hear Babbit whispering to Aoi as he read from our textbook, so I put it aside and stood up. "I'm going out for a bit. Do you need anything?"

Aoi looked up at my voice, "No, we're fine."

I hoped that was the we of people with intelligent sunglasses, rather than her putting on airs for being an Alice.

I went down to Hotaru's room. I walked in and saw that she was looking at a website with Professor King's photo on it. "Why the interest in Anita? She's just an ordinary Alice isn't she? How does she fit into your plans for global domination?"

Hotaru didn't look up from her computer, "Sana Kurata is world famous and Mikan Sakura is a nobody even inside Japan, and yet Professor King called you Mikan. Why?"

"The British have encountered Mikan. She was taking a London holiday, instead of a Roman one."

"Yes, it's our first solid lead since she split. Take a look at this."

"Common Superhuman Abilities from Different Mythological Traditions by Professor James King? This paper is almost a decade old."

"They were looking for examples of Alices in old stories and look at his list of research assistants. Y. Readman. She was working for him before Anita was born."

"So when Anita showed her Alice, the Kings called on Readman to help them?"

"The British suddenly have an Alice outside the Japanese program and it's the exact same Alice as another person who just happens to be there? Alices tend to run in families, though it's not always an exact match."

"So Readman is Anita's mother?"

"The Kings were already married at that point and would continue to be so until Mrs. King died five years later."

"So Readman had Anita and then gave her up for the Kings to adopt so as to avoid a departmental scandal? Where did Readman go after Anita was born?"

"She came back to Japan to teach high school, but I haven't been able to find any records on Anita yet. Perhaps she was born at a private hospital? Why would a research assistant be able to afford that in a country with universal health care?"

"Let's sneak out and ask her."

"Readman vanished without a trace around five years ago, but there's somebody else at the school who attended it at the same time as she did. Mr. Jinno."

"Operation Provoke Lightning begins Monday. I cringe just thinking about it already."

"Going to chicken out?"

"As Anita said, please don't say chicken at this school. It's just bad luck."

Aoi slept in my arms again that night and in the morning I had to help her shower again, but thanks to the Babbit Sunglasses she was able to follow me to class, where I introduced her to the rest, "This is Aoi Hyuuga, she's Natsume's little sister."

"Are you sure?" Yome asked, "She thinks like she doesn't know Natsume at all."

"She lost her memory. How long ago was that?"

"I don't know. I've been like this for many many months. Sorry."

"Well show them your ID card then."

"This?" She took out her student ID and opened it.

I took it out of her hands and rotated it right side up, "Hey Aoi, you're a Special Ability Alice, just like me."

"Special Ability?"

"We've got a type class after our regular classes today. I'll show you then."

Aoi took the seat to the right of me, which seemed to annoy Anita, who sat to my left, as usual.

During PE the teacher walked alongside Aoi, who used a combination of Babbit and her heat sense to follow the track.

I sat down next to Ruka, "Was Aoi always blind?"

"No, she could see normally. This heat vision is new for her. All she could sense before were the special fires she or her family had created with their Alices. She was just an ordinary little girl. She even had a crush on a boy my age. He was real broken up when she died. His name was Akito Hayama. He looked a bit like the boy we saw in Yura's vision."

"Arrgh!"

"What's the matter, Sana?"

"It's the story of my life. I put a little bit of effort into fixing up a boyfriend and then some old girlfriend reaches in and snatches him away from me."

At the start of the first class after lunch I stood up as the math teacher walked in, "Mr. Jinno, is Anita the love child of Yomiko Readman and James King?"

"The nerve, miss Kurata. To stand up in class and accuse a former student of adultery and a current student of being a bastard child. Normally you would be severely punished for this. But I can see that you are attempting to use your Alice as a lie detector. That is very clever. You are more dangerous than your sister, and thanks to this warning I will overlook your outrageous behavior this one time. Analyze this then. Our Anita King was born to a Mrs. Alice King. Now since you are so energetic today, come to the front of class and show us how to work these math problems. Miss Imai's report can wait until tomorrow."

At the end of that class I collapsed face down at my desk.

"Too much Math?" Hotaru asked.

"My brain hurts. Can I have another one please?"

"So what was the result of your probing?"

"I'm sure I had him with my question and I'm sure that he was sure about his statement. So congratulations, Anita. Your mystery is solved. Mr. Jinno is certain that you have two mothers."

"And that helps me how exactly?"

"Say Babbit," I turned back to Aoi, "What's this about you being a lie detector?"

An ordinary Babbit popped up. "A lie detector machine requires a physical connection to the subject to measure heart rate, respiration, perspiration and other factors that indicate nervousness. Its utility has been often questioned."

"Using your digression again?"

"Sorry."

"I don't have a bat in my belfry. I've got a weasel."

After class I briefly considered losing Aoi out in the forest without even a breadcrumb trail to find her way back, but I took her to the Special Ability meeting instead. "Hi everybody, this is Aoi Hyuuga. She's got the Firewalking Alice."

"Firewalking Alice, how's that work?"

"She's immune to fire and feels heat."

"Well, we can all feel when something is hot."

"Yes, but she's blind and can sense heat at a distance."

"Hyuuga, is she related to Natsume?"

"Yes, she's his little sister," Then I noticed that the people who had been asking me questions were simply different copies of Misaki as another Misaki had taken Aoi away and was introducing her to the other Special Ability students, "Hey, that's a mean trick."

"What's her problem?" One Misaki asked another. "No idea." "It's not like it's anything she hasn't dealt with before." "She has a multitasking Alice also, just like us."

"Now you're picking on me."

"You just haven't been properly trained." "But who can do that with Mr. Noda missing as usual?" "I guess it has to be another student with an ability like hers." "That's us then." "Okay everybody let's go outside and play a game on Babbit." "Don't you mean with rather than on?" "It's all the same."

We went out into the courtyard of the middle school and the other special ability students lined up, each with a Misaki and a Babbit while another Misaki stood next to me with a clipboard, "Here's the rules. Each student will ask ten questions and award a point to either their Misaki or Babbit, whoever gets the correct answer first. Ready?"

"Aren't you giving me an advantage by making one more Misaki to count with me?"

"Not really." "She's only matching you yourself." "The multiples really only count starting with two." "I agree." "Okay everybody, start now."

The students starting asking questions and the Babbits and Misakis rattled off answers then suddenly one Misaki slapped Tsubasa and then the matching Babbit hard enough to pop it.

"What was that?"

"He asked my measurements", that Misaki pointed at Tsubasa, "And Babbit guessed them!"

"Ten points to Babbit." Tsubasa ducked when his Misaki swung again.

My Misaki and I tallied the scores. I won 121 points to 99.

"How?" All the Misakis asked together.

"You overlooked all the parameters of Sana's Alice," Tsubasa rubbed his cheek, "In addition to multitasking she's got a perfect memory also."

"That just sucks." "Here I am one of the more powerful Alices in the school." "And she goes right past me in my own specialty with no effort at all." All of the Misakis popped out of existence.

"She wasn't even here?" I looked around.

"Sometimes I wonder if I've ever seen the real one. Perhaps she doesn't really exist?"

"Who doesn't exist?" Misaki stepped out from around the corner of the building and grabbed Tsubasa by his sore cheek.

"Ow! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

As we walked back to our dorm, Aoi asked me, "Sana, is Misaki a created being like Babbit is?"

"I'm really sure that Misaki must be a student because she has a star class while nobody has suggested assigning a star class to Babbit separately from mine."

"Oh. What's a star class?"

"That's the ranking system they have around here for lodging and other perks. I'm sure you'll be assigned one soon."

On Tuesday Hotaru gave her report and finished with, "So as you can see the real problem was that I had a team of bumbling amateurs with no coordination. Permission to drill them into a finely tuned fighting machine?"

"Permission denied. Return to your seat," Mr. Jinno looked over his papers, "Misses Kurata and Hyuuga. See me in the staff office after classes."

"But Aoi doesn't see."

"That's quite enough out of you for today, miss Imai."

After classes I stopped by Hotaru's desk as she was packing up her books, "I just wanted to say that I liked your report, except for the part at the end where you blamed the rest of us."

"It still seems a bit excessive to send British Special Forces to resolve a child custody case."

"I just hope they send ninja's after us next time." I looked over and saw that Aoi had just finished gathering her books with the help of her Babbit Sunglasses.

"Sana, we are the ninjas."

"What?" I turned back to Hotaru.

"Meiji only gathered the Alice programs into a single imperial program. He didn't snap his fingers and create superpowers out of nothing."

"So you weren't kidding about the imperial patronage? Well if we're ninjas then no wonder we do so badly in groups."

"Do you get all of your information about everything from movies? No wonder you don't know anything about Alices. Ruka, let's practice our Alices together today." Sumire reached out for him.

"Sorry, I just remembered I have to do something today." He dashed for the door

"And Sana, don't you have a teacher waiting for you?" Hotaru followed Ruka out the classroom.

"Come on Aoi, Mr. Jinno doesn't like waiting."

Mr. Jinno wasn't the only teacher waiting in the staff room, "Come in misses Kurata and Hyuuga. As you can see I have asked Ms. Yamada and Mr. Misaki to help me with an issue concerning you two as misters Noda and Narumi are absent at the moment. I would first like to make a statement on this. Recently the star ranking system for the Elementary Branch has been run in a rather ad hoc basis and this has contributed to discipline problems in the school. I will not mention the students involved other than to note that miss Kurata is one of the cases in question. Do you understand my concerns, miss Kurata?"

"Yes, sir." This was it. I was about to be cut down a star for all the trouble I'd caused so far. With any luck they'd simply kick me out.

"However your recent actions have alleviated some of my concerns about you wile leaving me with an even bigger puzzle as to what to do with miss Hyuuga. When we allocate a star class to a student we want to to be an effective decision and so this needs to actually reflect in the student's lifestyle, but the student needs to be living independently for this to have any impact. So I am puzzled by the case of miss Hyuuga. She does not know braille and without miss Kurata's support she would be functionally illiterate, and for the most part unable to usefully attend classes. In addition a star class is intended to indicate a student's academic record and Alice ability. Miss Hyuuga has a two year gap in both areas and has only recovered to the point of being a full Alice in the past few days. As a new student miss Hyuuga deserves an initial star ranking so she can work within our system, but I do not think we can judge yet if she is indeed qualified to be a full student. The main sticking point in my mind in her total dependence on miss Kurata's Alice, which has failed in the past and may do so again."

"I - I don't want to be a burden on anybody."

"Helping Alice students is not just a job for us," Mr. Misaki waved Aoi forwards, "It's a mission and we don't accept any teachers who see this as just a job. Now we'd like to test some things if you don't mind. Take off your glasses and put them on the table here please."

Aoi reached out with one hand to feel the table then placed the Babbit sunglasses on it and stepped back.

"Now, can you tell us how many people are in this room please?"

"I heard the three teachers introduced and I haven't heard Sana leaving, so that makes five, including myself."

"If there was anybody else in the room would you be able to sense them?"

"I might hear them."

"And yet you were able to sense Sana by her body heat alone outside?"

"You were there?"

"In a matter of speaking. Ms. Yamada has the Alice of remote sight."

"Aoi could only sense me when I was really close."

"Thank you Sana," Mr. Misaki moved his hand a decimeter from Aoi's face and she grabbed it, "That's not much range. Could you tell it was my hand before you touched it?"

"No, just that something was there."

"And yet you found your way to the path on your own when you were attacked by ghosts?"

"It was warm and had sunshine on it. Did you see me there?"

"I did," Ms. Yamada held up her crystal ball.

"This is cool and round," Aoi felt it.

"It's something a friend made for me a long time ago. It helps me with my Alice. If only he were still around he could make one for miss Otonashi as well so she wouldn't need Tobita's help to show others what she sees. But we two can still see for ourselves without outside assistance. You cannot."

The teachers continued to test Aoi for a few more minutes. Then Mr. Jinno asked her to sit, "I think we have seen enough for now and I have a motion on this student, if you two don't mind? Fine. Miss Hyuuga you will continue in your current circumstances for the moment as a provisional one star Alice with monthly reviews. We have a hard deadline of the end of the semester because we cannot have an elementary branch student totally dependent on a middle school branch student. Agreed?" The other two teachers nodded, "And do you foresee any difficulties with this arrangement miss Kurata?"

"No, it's no problem."

"Needless to say, any further misbehavior by either of you will force us to reconsider the matter. Which will most likely result in miss Hyuuga's suspension from regular classes. Dismissed."

Wednesday morning the substitute teacher walked into first period literature and we all ignored him.

Anita asked me a question about a play I had been in when I was six that Mama had written about in her book.

The substitute teacher cleared his throat then after a moment raised his voice to be heard above the chatter, "We have a special guest today."

We stopped for a moment then turned away.

"So please welcome Misako Kurata."

"Mama?" I turned to face the door and the entire class fell silent as she walked in, wearing a kimono as usual, and stood behind the teacher's desk.

Maro was sitting in a tiny Greek temple on her head. He sniffed the air then jumped to a student's desk and down to the ground. He ran over to Ruka's arms and snuggled up next to his bunny.

Mama raised an eyebrow at this.

"Sorry Mama, er Ms. Kurata, but that's just his Alice."

"I see. Now I hear that some of the students have some questions for me? Yes, miss?"

"Hotaru Imai. Did you know you were an Alice before you wrote your first book?"

"By the time I found Sana I was aware that ordinary people simply did not do the things I felt free to do, but I had never heard of the term Alice and had no idea that there was a conspiracy to hide the existence of people with extraordinary abilities. Five years later an extraordinary woman appeared at my door talking nonstop about my books. I tried to shoo her off, but then she did something impossible and said that she was an Alice, just like me. I invited her in. Like me she was obviously unconstrained by the fashions of the day. Yes, you there?"

"Anita King."

Recognition flashed over Mama's face and then she ever so carefully hid it as Anita continued.

"When did you learn that Sana was an Alice?"

"The first mention of it was when my visitor saw Sana and asked if she would be sent to the Academy soon. I thought this was a very strange thing to ask and so she explained the nature of this Alice Academy. She said that I should have Sana tested because of the hereditary nature of the Alice. I made her promise never to tell then revealed that Sana was adopted from parents unknown. I was outraged when I learned that the state compelled your attendance and I wanted to use my own fame to out the conspiracy, but then my visitor asked if I had considered the best interest of the children. What would happen to all of you if everybody knew that you were freaks? I have remained split on the issue ever since. A year later after meeting many more Alices and seeing how well they were adjusted and how envious they were that I could keep my own child, another giant reason to hold my tongue appeared in a small plastic package. The first few times I had seen Babbit following Sana around I assumed that it was just a toy that somebody had given her. Then one day she looked into thin air and Babbit was there. Sana, do you mind my telling them what you said when I asked if you wanted to go to the Academy?"

"I can tell them. I asked if you would come also and when you said you couldn't then I said I wouldn't go. You managed to keep me from them for another five years."

The questions continued until the end of class and the other students kept back when they saw me follow Mama out of the door.

"Where are you going Mama?"

"To the highschool branch to help a student there. I wish you had called me yourself instead of relaying your request through miss Imai."

"She gets to use the phone? Why didn't you ever tell me that you were an Alice?"

"I have never told anyone. It has always been obvious to people who were themselves Alices, and it wouldn't have meant anything to anybody who wasn't."

"That visitor, it was Yomiko Readman, wasn't it? Anita doesn't remember anything about her past life from before she came to the Academy and we think that Ms. Readman could fill in the gaps. Do you know where she is now?"

"Why should I know anything like that?" I think she could see on my face that I knew she was lying, so she turned away.

I stood there as she walked off. It wasn't just that. I had seen the ways her eyes moved, looking at things revealed to her from inside. The same look that Hotaru got when she used her Alice, but Mama had been using her Alice ever since she showed up today. Why? She wasn't writing anything down, so why did she need to use her Alice constantly?

* * *

Next: Chapter Eight: Three Mothers, Three Daughters


	16. Sana's Alice, Chapter eight

[Kodocha/Alice Academy/RoD] Sana's Alice By Henry J. Cobb

Gakuen Alice is the creation of Higuchi Tachibana. Kodomo no Omocha is the creation of Miho Obana. Read or Dream is the creation of Hideyuki Kurata. Ginban Kaleidoscope is the creation of Rei Kaibara. This parody is not intended to cause any damage to these properties.

This is the sequel to another story of mine called A Clockwork Tangerine.

Chapter Eight: Three Mothers, Three Daughters

"I am such a dummy."

"And it took you this long to figure that out, Sana?"

I waited in Hotaru's doorway for a moment, but she didn't look up from her computer so I continued, "Mama was using the same Alice as yours in order to hide a secret and I pried it out of her, but anybody can read it off me."

"You're simply too honest and open for your own good. So what's this dark secret?"

"Mama knows where Yomiko Readman is."

"Oh? Did she say where she was?"

"No, but now she knows that I know that she knows."

"Did you at least let her get off campus before running over here?"

"Yeah, well I'm not that dumb."

"Good, because Ms. Readman is a terrorist."

"What?"

"The British have her listed as a wanted person, but the Japanese don't."

"Mama would never harbor a terrorist."

"Let's go to the hospital after class."

"Uh, why?"

"To visit my big brother."

"Oh, is he any better?"

"No," Hotaru turned back to her computer. After a moment I closed her door and set off to breakfast.

I brought flowers when I met Hotaru at the hospital.

"I don't think he'll notice those, in his state," she took my hand.

"They say that talking to plants makes them grow, so maybe adding plants to his room will make him talk."

"Right. Hopefully he's allergic."

Tazusa was sitting next to the bed where Hotaru's brother lay, "Hello you two. Look Imai, it's your sister and her friend Sana and they've brought fresh flowers."

Hotaru's brother lay there and did not respond at all.

"When he collapsed over you Sana, I reached out with my Alice and snatched this joker instead," Tazusa pointed at her own head, "but thankfully neither of you were actually dead. Would you like some time with your brother, Hotaru?"

"No thanks, we just had time to drop by. Be seeing you," Hotaru grabbed my wrist and led me from the room.

Outside I shifted around to lock my pinkie over hers, "Once he's back on his feet let's get those two to confess to each other, agreed?"

"Agreed, but I don't think he's going to make it like this. Since you won't help him there's only one person who can."

"Stop confusing me with Mikan. She's got her Alice and I have mine. There is no overlap."

"Come to my lab and bring Anita and nobody else. Agreed?"

"Yes."

I almost followed her instructions.

"Why did you bring Aoi?"

"The barrier blocks my Alice right? So if I go outside the barrier and she stays inside then her Babbit glasses will go poof and she'll be blind."

"So you'd rather take a blind girl out where people can shoot at her than leave her safe in her room?"

"Sana, are you going somewhere?," Aoi grabbed my hand.

"Actually you might have the right idea, Sana," Hotaru shut the hood on a mini car with two seats in front and a bench seat in the back, "Aoi might prove more useful bait than Anita. If Anita's mother doesn't know where Mikan is then she might still be with Aoi's brother."

"You know where Persona is?"

"Your real brother," Hotaru turned around and stopped.

Tazusa was standing there, "Where are you going?"

I stepped up, "We're going to find my sister. She's the only one who can save Hotaru's brother now. Please don't stop us."

"I'm in. It sounds better than my excuse for breaking out of here."

"What?"

"Some creep uploaded an edited copy of my video to the Internet with himself pasted in the place of my phantom partner. I guess I can wait to kill him until after Imai-san is available to bring the creep back to life so I can do it again."

"Your brother can't really raise the dead, can he?" I tried hard to not think of reasons why Hotaru might have wanted Tazusa along.

"Of course not. The dead are beyond the reach of any Alice."

How could Hotaru say that in front of Tazusa?

"You are so like your brother. I call shotgun."

"I don't have one. It's too clumsy of a weapon, but yes the three little kids can fit in the back."

"I am not little!"

Hotaru ignored Anita's interjection and continued to address Tazusa, "It's good to have another English speaker around if we have to deal with the British."

"Oh, that's because her first two ghosts were Canadians."

"Her current ghost is Japanese, but he was raised in Canada."

"Oh somebody's been doing her homework," Tazusa patted Hotaru on the head, "I'd say how bizarre it was to have an Alice that only works on Canadian ghosts, but I've got an Alice that works on ghosts, so I can't complain."

"I'd kill you for that, but I need your Alice and I hope to be on good terms with my brother in the future."

"Good luck with that. It'll still be more than three months before I can use my Alice again."

"You're just along for the template. Now, everybody take out your student IDs and leave them on my desk."

I pulled the ID out of my shirt and stood there, unable to let go.

"If you're going to be a good little mind controlled student then perhaps you should just stay here. It suits you," Hotaru grabbed my ID and tossed it to the far side of her workroom.

My eyes followed its path, but I didn't resist as she pushed me into the back of her car. Aoi and Anita got in on either side of me then Tazusa and Hotaru got in the front.

"Template?" Tazusa fastened her seat belt, "You want Mikan to copy my Alice? So she can disintegrate people and grab their souls at the same time? It sounds like the perfect crime, but I couldn't live with the ghost of somebody I'd murdered."

"Then I won't tell you how your Alice actually works."

I interrupted to stop them before Tazusa started hitting Hotaru, or worse yet used her borrowed Alice to make jokes, "Does this car fly?"

"Not this one," Hotaru hit a switch to open the garage doors then backed out onto the street.

"Then how are we going to get through the barrier?"

"There's a hole in it," Hotaru hit the accelerator and I could hear the whine of the electric motor behind me through the body of the car.

The guard stood for a moment in our headlights then jumped to the side of the road as we headed for the academy's main gate.

I crossed my arms in front of my face then a moment later dropped them and looked back. The gate had opened for us. "How did you do that?"

"Oh they'll work that out eventually. I'll have to find another way out next time. Perhaps Mikan or you will meet your section adviser and we'll be able to walk out of the barrier before the Academy ever existed."

I could see that Hotaru was still confused about my Alice. "Why are you driving so fast and weaving back and forth?"

"One of the highschool students has a kinetic energy barrier. I have to stay above her limit in case she gets teleported in front of us. The controls are also electric so they can't risk shorting out the engine or knocking me out. We're about to hit the public roads now so hold on for a moment."

We ran through five green lights in a row then got up onto the elevated highway. "Okay Sana," Hotaru patted the dashboard, "Put a Babbit here."

"Sure." I blinked and he was sitting there.

"I understand the urgency, but I can't say I approve of the methods."

Hotaru interrupted him, "Now another one outside."

"Why?"

"We're outside the barrier. It's a straight run to your house. Hurry before we're stopped."

"Yes! Babbit go to Mama!" A second Babbit appeared outside the window then flew off into the distance.

"How can he fly so fast?" Anita looked in the direction he had gone.

"I figured out a while ago that Babbit doesn't fly adiabatically."

"Aerodynamically," Hotaru and the Babbit in front corrected together.

"So he goes just as fast as I think he can, up to some limit. And I'm in a hurry right now."

"Babbit," Hotaru talked to the one on her dashboard, "What's your ETA?"

"Thirty seconds. Still no signs of strain from Sana."

"Good, go full duplex and simply repeat what you hear from the other side."

"Understood."

I didn't like the way Hotaru was bossing my Alice around, "Why not make a phone call or go visit?"

"Oh hello Babbit," Babbit was copying Mama's voice and had even put on a tiny plastic hat with a little bitty plastic Maro perched in it, "What brings you here?"

"Ms. Kurata, I'm Hotaru Imai, a classmate of Sana's. As you can see we are temporarily outside the school's barrier so she can use her Alice. We're in a bit of hurry so we're using this method to contact you."

"Interesting," Babbit turned to Hotaru and touched a wing to his chin.

"We're looking for somebody who attended the Academy over a decade ago and then went overseas. A lady who had a talent with cards. We've got a current student I think she'd like to meet."

"Sana," Babbit turned and pointed at me with a fan just the way Mama would, "Is miss Imai a bit of a writer?"

"Uh yes, she's been selected to write the class play."

"I thought I saw something in her eyes," Mama Babbit turned back to Hotaru, "To find the one you seek, turn over an old leaf, but don't go inside."

"Understood. Sana, cut the link."

"But I wanted to talk to Mama."

"Do you want to get her into any more trouble?"

"I guess not. Bye Mama, see you soon!" I banished both Babbits, then looked at Hotaru's eyes reflected in the rear view mirror. There was something familiar about them. "Don't use your Alice while driving!"

"Don't worry, I'm very good at multitasking."

"That's what Mama said before they took her license away. Now it's all about how not driving gives her more time to write and she still crashes that toy car into the house walls."

"It's cool," Hotaru took the next exit, tuned off on a side street then spun the wheel and slammed on the breaks.

I was held in place as both Aoi and Anita held onto me. We had stopped in front of a large building.

"Get out now!" Hotaru undid her seat belt and stepped out of the car. The rest of us followed and then the car drove off by itself. "It's an autopilot, but the academy might get it at any time so don't count on it being available later." Hotaru turned to Anita, "Get over there and do your thing."

"The National Library?" Anita sunk her fingers into my arm, "We're not going in there, are we?"

"That's not our instructions. Just stand in front of the building and do something with your Alice that can be seen from a distance."

"Okay," Anita took out a pack of index cards and tossed them one by one up into the air and had them spiral back into her hand from 20 meters up.

"You're not supposed to use your Alice in public Anita," It was Mr. Narumi. How had he gotten there? Some other Alice must have brought him over, most likely teleporation.

"Sorry," Anita held up her hand and the cards settled down into them.

"Now, let's all go back to the Academy, eh?" Mr. Narumi looked at the cards which seemed to be yanked from Anita's hand as she reached for them.

The cards raced to Mr. Narumi and covered him head to toe. He just had time to say "Mmmhp!" before he fell over.

"I should have done that years ago." It was a woman in an overcoat, she had huge glasses and unkempt long black hair.

"It's Ms. Readman!"

"Oh, hello Sana. My how you've grown."

"How did you do that?" Anita looked from her empty hand to where Mr. Narumi was wrapped up like a mummy.

"I'm your mother silly." Ms. Readman stepped up to run her fingers through Anita's hair.

"No," Anita backed away, "My mother's dead. My father killed her."

"Oh, you know about that already," Ms. Readman adjusted her glasses, "Don't blame Dr. King for that. I'm the one most responsible for Mrs. King's death."

This was spiraling out of control and the last thing we needed right then was for Anita to go berserk again so I interrupted, "Have you seen Mikan?"

"Mikan? Which Mikan?"

"My twin sister, she looks just like me."

"You have a sister? That wasn't in your mother's book," Ms. Readman looked over at Mr. Narumi, "Let's hurry along and talk elsewhere. I have to let the poor thing breathe, I just don't want him breathing on me."

"Okay, this has been a dead end," Hotaru turned to Ms. Readman, "My brother is dying because he overused his Alice and Mikan is our only hope to save him. Will you help us find her?"

"I'll do what I can."

"Let's split up. Anita is with me, Tazusa goes with Ms. Readman and Sana goes with Aoi. That gives one Alice who is resistant to mind control and one Alice with a physical power in each group. Here are your destinations," Hotaru handed folded pieces of paper to Tazusa and I, "Now Sana, make a Babbit for each of the other two groups."

"Sure," I nodded and Babbits appeared next to Hotaru and Tazusa.

"I want to go with Sana!" Anita complained.

"That doesn't match the requirements. Do you want my brother to die?" Hotaru grabbed Anita by the arm and walked away with a Babbit flying after them.

"Be seeing you then," I read the note with my right hand as I took Aoi's hand in my left. The address wasn't too far away and we could walk there.

On the way there we passed a boy of around my age who was wearing a baseball cap. I stepped to the side because he was wearing sunglasses, even though it was after sunset.

The boy stopped and looked at me, "Why are you in an Alice Academy uniform here?"

"Oh, I'm a student there. We're just on a sightseeing trip."

He raised his hand and pointed at me.

Aoi jumped between us, "Don't!"

Flame spat from his hand and covered her.

Somehow above the roar of the flames I could hear her Babbit sunglasses popping, "Aoi!" I reached for her, but she was unharmed.

"Aoi?" The boy stopped.

"Yes," I looked her over, "Don't worry Aoi, you're fine. It's your Alice ability to resist all fire that saved you, but how could you know?"

"I could feel it. His power." She still stood in front of me with arms outstretched.

"It can't be," He looked at her, "You died. I saw your body. And what is wrong with your eyes?"

"She's blind," I risked closing my eyes for a moment to concentrate then handed Aoi another copy of her glasses.

She felt them with her fingers, put them on, then spoke to them, "Babbit, who is this boy?"

"I don't know," The mini-Babbit responded, "Neither Sana nor I have seen him before."

The boy grabbed Aoi's hand, but she jerked out of his grip and stood between us.

"You are not the Mirror Man, he can't materialize solid objects," The boy faced me, "So who are you, and why do you look like Mikan?"

"You know about Mikan? Great! I'm her sister, Sana Kurata, world famous TV star."

"Yes. I know that Sana is her sister and that she is at the Academy, but why would you be here?"

"Well, who are you?"

"I'm Aoi's brother, Natsume Hyuuga."

At that moment Aoi's glasses spoke with Hotaru's voice, "Sana, did you find one of them?"

"He says he's Natsume."

"Show him your note. Natsume, is that the right address?"

"Yeah. So you make walkie-talky sunglasses now Hotaru?"

"It's Sana's Alice. Okay, Sana, leave Aoi with her brother and run to that address."

"But -"

"Don't argue. The Academy is closing in and we haven't much time. Aoi would slow you down and you are the one that Mikan needs to see. I'll be right there."

I ran a few blocks and then stopped and backed around a corner when I saw him. "Akito..."

Babbit popped up next to me, "Do you really want to get him involved in this?"

"No, I guess."

At that moment a girl walked past Akito. He turned to look at her walking away then ran after her, "Sana!"

She ran off.

"See how Akito sees through my disguises everytime? I admit it's just a wig and sunglasses, but he only took one glance to see it's me."

"Sana, you're you."

"Oh," I turned to Babbit and then back to Akito chasing after that girl, "Then that must be Mikan. My tramp sister is trying to steal my boyfriend!"

"She's not the one who's chasing him -"

I clapped Babbit to pop him then ran after the pair, "Akito!"

"Sana?" He turned to me.

"Don't stop. Catch her! Mikan, I'm your sister!"

She stopped and turned towards me. She looked at me for a moment, "That ain't no Alice disguise."

At that moment Hotaru ran up and pointed at me, "Mikan, quick, copy Sana's Alice!"

"She ain't got no Alice and I don't copy Alices."

"You don't have to hide it anymore, I saw you disintegrate Persona using your Alice."

"Mikan killed Persona?" Aoi asked, then yanked her hand out of her brother's.

"That's the point. I used my Alice to nullify the protections Persona was using. He blew himself up."

"How can you say I'm not an Alice? How about this?" Babbit seemed to resist but I forced him to appear in front of Mikan.

"Uh, hi there."

She jumped back and stared at him.

"That isn't an Alice, is it?" Hotaru walked up to Mikan.

"No, it's fake, but not like what Mama does. It's a bunch of different Alices, only they're kinda mixed all together."

"And the reason why you thought Sana wasn't an Alice?"

"She got the same Alice as mine, but how she do that?"

Hotaru said some things in different languages, and it didn't sound very nice, then she switched back to Japanese. "That's just great. One of the wonder twins can't see and the other can't do. So you've found your mother?"

"Yes, she's just this way."

"And she steals Alices?"

"Yah, how'd you know that?"

"Let's go see her and I'll explain everything. Are we being tracked?"

"There was a trace on Sana, but I've misdirected it."

"We don't have much time then. Let's get indoors."

"Yes, you'd best take cover." It was a big blond man who spoke with an American accent.

"Mr. Anderson," Ms. Readman adjusted her glasses with her left hand as her right prepared a set of paper cards, "What are you doing here?"

"I had a buddy in the British special forces who had to retire because he lost an eye to a paper card so I knew you'd be in on it."

"Sorry about that," Anita also drew some cards.

"But he said the thing that troubled him most was that they used live ammunition on children. So he wanted me to come ask, how many did they kill?"

"Only Hotaru and I were shot and we're fine now," I pointed at Hotaru, "Is that it?"

"That'll be a relief to my buddy. He said the next stage of the British plan involved a famous Japanese writer who was secretly an Alice."

"Mama!" I felt a cold hand on my heart.


	17. Sana's Alice, Chapter nine

"Babbit!" I leaned down till my right hand was almost to the ground and materialized a Babbit in my hand. Then I threw him skyward with all of my strength, "Fly!" I watched him climb above the buildings then turn and zoom out of sight, towards home. Not bad for a balloon animal. Then I remembered and shouted after him, "Warn her!" It didn't matter that he was out of earshot, as he was just a figment of my imagination after all.

"Hey, Akito."

Akito Hayama looked down from where he had followed Babbit's trajectory and nodded at the boy who had spoken, "Yo, Natsume."

They knew each other? Yes, I remembered how. I grabbed Natsume's sister by the shoulders and shoved her towards Akito, "Here she is. Your childhood sweetheart. She doesn't remember you anymore, but I won't interfere as she gets to know you again."

"Who?" Akito looked at the girl in the Babbit sunglasses.

"It's Aoi Hyuuga."

"Can't be. I ran away from her funeral."

"It seems the Academy tricked everybody," Natsume looked around, "Shouldn't we get under cover?"

"Yes, I know of a place," Ms. Readman turned to my twin, "As long as we're protected from scans?"

"Yah, no problem," Mikan Sakura pointed into the distance, "I just knocked on Mama's barrier and she's coming this way. If all you Alices keep together we'll all be fine."

Mama was heading here? Oh, it was Mikan's Mama, our birth mother. "Come along Akito, so you can chat with your girlfriend," I pointed at Aoi.

"No Sana, the only girlfriend I've ever had is you."

"Huh? Well how about Mami? I saw you holding hands with her."

"Did you have a Babbit following me everywhere? But no, that wasn't what it seemed like."

"Here she is! Mama, look it's Sana."

I looked at the woman Mikan waved at, but didn't recognize her. Then I turned back towards a scraping noise. Ms. Readman was trying to move a manhole cover.

"Let me give you a hand with that." That big American man, Mr. Anderson she had called him, easily picked up the cover and moved it to the side.

Ms. Readman looked down the shaft. "It's a bit dark, so can somebody spare a light?"

"Here." Natsume held up a torch sized flame in his hand.

"And I'll take up the rear." Mr. Anderson pulled out a mini flashlight.

"Can we trust him?" Anita asked.

"Well Drake is an old friend, but he does put mission first."

"I'm just here as a favor to a friend." He held up his hands.

"It's not like he's an Alice. Mikan walked over and looked between Anita and Ms. Readman. "Are you two related?"

"Ms. Readman is one of Anita's two mothers." Hotaru nudged them towards the shaft.

"Oh, so you know that part already?" Ms. Readman began to climb down, followed by the rest of the party.

I turned to Akito and kissed him on the cheek. "Goodbye, we're off to save the world, or something." I turned back to Hotaru. "Say, why aren't we dropping Mikan back at the academy before going to help my mom?"

"The British have moved up their schedule, so we don't have time. There's something about the way they're acting that doesn't add up. Do keep up."

Akito followed her down.

"What, why are you going?" I carefully stepped down the ladder after him.

"If your mom's in trouble then I owe her to help out."

"Oh, Akito. This is my birth mother, I think?"

"Yuka Yukihira."

"So you actually married Izumi?" Hotaru asked from further below.

"Is that common knowledge at the school, or are you an information Alice?"

"The latter." Hotaru waited below for the rest of us, as Mr. Anderson replaced the cover behind us. Then she turned to my birth mother. "Mrs. Yukihira, we know that your group has encountered the British. When did you travel to the UK?"

"We didn't. We ran in to them near the academy."

"So what did you find out?"

"They've got some sort of operation in Tokyo."

"Okay, let's ask the woman who burned down London." Hotaru turned to Ms. Readman.

"Yes, that's my fault, but the actual event was the result of a much stronger Alice than mine." Ms. Readman looked at Anita.

"Anita is a stronger Alice than her mother?" I asked.

"Yes." Mikan nodded as if it were obvious to her. Well, with her Alice vision I guess it was.

"It's to be expected as the daughter of two strong Alices." Ms. Readman lead the way in the storm sewers, with Natsume by her side to light the way.

"Professor King is an Alice? That's the missing piece that Sumire's hasty action kept me from seeing in the first place." Hotaru frowned.

"Yes, like you he's an information Alice." Ms. Readman nodded. "I suppose that's how he spotted me so easily at Oxford. I got swept up in his big project."

"And then you slept with him."

"No." Ms. Readman stopped and looked back at Hotaru. "I would never. Well, I would have, but he never asked, and Mrs. King was such a dear friend. I could never have betrayed her."

"How can you deny it, when Anita is standing right there?"

"I was young and naive. When Professor King said that they needed genetic samples for their research, I didn't think twice about agreeing to donate some of my eggs. If only I had known. Anita, I would have demanded to carry you myself!"

"Huh?" Anita looked up at her.

"Mrs. King was such a kind and lovely woman, inside and out, but her health was never that good. I was so happy for her, when she told me she was finally pregnant. With you, Anita. She really was at the end of her strength when you were born, but she made that extra effort for your sake. Those last four years were the happiest I'd ever seen her. Oh I should have seen the truth in James' eyes when he get me to babysit you during her frequent hospital visits."

"Where are we going?" Aoi asked.

"To a bookstore." Ms. Readman turned to study Anita's face and sadly shook her head. "So you're still frightened of books? It's entirely my fault I'm afraid."

"So, what happened?" Hotaru asked.

"When Anita was four, Professor King called me to his office and asked me to train her Alice. I was shocked at a non-Japanese Alice and asked him why he thought that I would be the right person to train her. He replied that Anita had the same Alice as I did, because I was her mother. In an instant it all became clear to me and I chased him around the library tossing books at him. If only I had known that he had brought Anita with him."

"Why, what happened to me?" Anita looked at the woman who claimed to be her mother.

"You walked in the way of one of the books I had thrown at your father."

"You hit me with a book?"

"Unfortunately, no. It never reached you. Part of the problem was in the way you had been raised. Never had a child been raised in such loving company. Your mother was with you every minute when she outside of the hospital. Your father doted on you. And I was delighted to find somebody else who loved books as much as I did. You were so well behaved that I doubt even one cross word had been used with you to that point.

"Anita does know some interesting curse words in Gaeilge." Hotaru volunteered, with a grin.

"Well I guess your father couldn't suppress all of his bad habits around you, but I swear that never had a hand been lifted against you. Your young mind just couldn't comprehend the concept of intentional violence. You went into Alice shock, Anita. You tore that library apart and spread a fire all over London."

"No, I couldn't. Dozens of people died that day."

"It wasn't your fault. You didn't know. You couldn't help it. I found out that day that even at the age of four you were a much stronger Alice than I was. It was all I could to escape myself. When I saw that I was labeled a terrorist on the news I fled back to Japan. I think it must have been the shock of losing you that killed Mrs. King. I sank down lower and lower into my own hiding hole until I read about Nenene's assassination. That is when I started to look for you, Anita. If there was the tinniest chance you were still alive, then it was the most important thing in the world to me. And you found me yourself. Well, here we are." Ms. Readman pulled a key out of her pocket and slid a stone to the side on a hinge.

"The bookstore?" Anita glanced at the concealed doorway.

"You can stay outside if you like, Dear."

"Lady, you don't know me at all." Anita walked through the opened door and stepped between a pair of bookshelves.

"What?" I stepped forwards, but was stopped by a hand on my shoulder. I turned and saw Hotaru grinning at me. Did she want Anita to explode again?

I looked back at Anita who was walking into the bookstore on quivering knees. She put her hands on the counter, and rested her forehead against it for several seconds then pulled her head up to address the old man who sat behind the counter, who was reading a book. "My Daughter and I, by Misako Kurata, please." Anita almost shouted out her request.

"This is the only copy I have on hand, but you can borrow it, Miss." The old man handed Anita the book he had been reading then he looked up at the group of us in the doorway. "Ms. Readman, I see you've brought some guests today. Including two Sana's? I haven't read that far, so no spoilers please."

I stood aside as Anita ran out of the bookstore, clutching the book with eyes shut. "It's not in that book, but I'll make sure that Mama puts it in her next one. So please, can you help us save her sir?"

"Me? I'm just an old man, and from the looks of your uniforms, you kids attend Ms. Readman's old school."

Hotaru stepped forwards and asked him, "How do you order books?"

"With this old computer here. It's nothing fancy, but it gets the job done."

"That should do, but first," Hotaru turned to me, "Sana, your Babbit should have gotten home by now."

"Oh! Is that right?" I looked at Aoi's Babbit glasses, then thought better of it. "I'll summon another Babbit to tell us."

"Not this time, sit up here." Hotaru patted the counter and I hopped up on it. "Now close you eyes and see through the remote Babbit's eyes."

I did as I was told, but saw nothing. "That only works when I'm asleep."

"That's a limitation you put on yourself, only because Tazusa told you about it."

"Me?" Tazusa asked. "Just because I told Sana about the dream usage of the reaper Alice she redid her Alice? Surely that's not possible. And what's with pushing Sana to do things your way?"

"From the looks of things we have to have either Mikan or Sana at full strength today or we're all dead."

"No offense to Sana, but isn't Mikan closer to your goal then? I heard she took on her entire class almost single handily."

"Both of these idiots are equally far from the ultimate Alice, just in different directions."

"The ultimate Alice?" Ms. Yukihira, the woman who claimed to be my birth mother asked. "Hotaru, did you find Izumi's notes?"

"Yes, of course." Hotaru winced and put the fingers of both hands to her forehead.

"Hotaru!" Mikan hugged her. "You're in such a state. Didn't she do nothing for you?" My twin glared at me.

Hotaru elbowed Mikan away. "Back off. I'll sleep with you later, but I need to concentrate now."

I looked over at my boyfriend, who was giving the two girls exactly the sort of look I expected. "It's not like that, Akito. Sana's just sort of a nurse for Alices, or something."

"Sana!" Hotaru spun and pointed at me. "Enough chit-chat. Close your eyes and focus."

I did as I was bid. "Sorry, but I don't see anything."

"You're doing it wrong." Mikan said from right in front of my closed eyes.

"Well sorry that I'm not the Alice expert of the family. You do it 'sis'."

"Okay." She placed her hands on either side of my head.

It was like a bolt of lighting went through my head and I was falling. I landed on my face and opened my eyes to see concrete. I leveraged myself up on my wings and saw a sidewalk. Wings? I glanced to my sides and saw that I had bat wings instead of arms. I looked forwards and saw that the sidewalk looked a lot like the one in front of my house. I looked up and saw that our front door had been kicked in. "Mama!" I started to crawl forwards on my wings. Too slowly. "Babbit, how do you fly?"

I winced from another sudden attack to my brain like a sledgehammer to my forehead as years of memories of flying washed over me all at once. I blinked then gathered my determination and leapt into the air.

I flew past the broken door. "Gee Babbit, this looks as bad as the messes I used to make. Babbit?" I shrugged my wings at the unexpected silence in my head and then struggled to regain the half a meter of altitude that gesture had cost me. That's when I saw her lying there. "Mrs. Shimura!"

"What?" She began to stir. "Sana?" She turned to look at me. "Babbit?"

"No time to explain. Where's Mama?"

"They took her. The American soldiers took her. And she's not even an Okinawan schoolgirl."

"I think they were British. How long ago did they take her?"

"I don't know. They knocked me out."

"Thanks. We'll take it from here."

"We?"

"I've got friends." I tried to contact my background Babbit, but he wasn't there. I closed my eyes and willed my Babbit-body away. When I reopened my eyes I was back in the bookstore. "They got Mama!"

"We heard." Hotaru didn't look up as she continued to type into the old man's computer. "You need to learn to speak from only one mouth at a time."

"Everybody's a critic today." I hopped off the counter. "Aoi, what happened to your glasses?"

"They just vanished." The blind girl turned to the sound of my voice.

"Here, I'll make you another pair." I folded my hands together then raised them to my head as I felt another sharp bolt of pain. I blinked away tears. "Sorry, Aoi, but it will have to wait. Mikan broke my Alice."

"No." Mikan shook her head. "It's healing itself, finally."

"Good to hear that." Hotaru stood from the computer then stooped under the counter to join us. "Keep up the good work, Sana."

"What good work? What if we need a Babbit swarm to take on the British?"

"And that would work better this time than last because?"

"Because I'm not going to stand in the line of fire this time."

"So you can learn." Hotaru grabbed Aoi's hand. "Come along. I found our perps."

"The elevator is over here."

Hotaru shook her head at Ms. Readman. "No, it's better to go back through the sewers. We can pop up right next to the building the British are in."

"What's the plan?" Ms. Yukihira asked.

"We Alice swarm them before they hit that switch."

"Switch? What switch?" Ms. Readman asked.

"I saw the list of parts they've acquired. At least I know now that Professor King isn't my equal. No machine could contain the force they're about to unleash." Hotaru glanced back at Mikan and myself, then turned and urged Aoi forwards. "They hit that switch and everybody dies."

Ten minutes later we got to the manhole that Hotaru identified and she got Mr. Anderson to lift the cover out of the way. Once we were all up in the alleyway she turned to us. "The building is right around the corner."

"Ow!" Ms. Yukihira jerked back.

"What?" Mikan looked through the wall in front of us.

"It's an Alice?" Natsume crept up to the corner, looked around it and collapsed.

"Natsume!" Mikan ran towards him.

"Mikan, don't!" Ms. Yukihira sat down in the alleyway. "I can't move my barrier. It's all I can do to hold it in place."

As Mikan stepped next to Natsume she flinched and was surrounded by a very bright flash of light that I had to look away from, but nobody else seemed to be bothered. Then she dragged him over near us, and was soon helped by Akito and Mr. Anderson. As they took the burden away from her she fell to her knees sobbing.

I knelt down next to my twin. "What's wrong Mikan?"

"He's dead! Natsume is dead." She turned and clung to me.

"No." Mr. Anderson looked up. "He's still breathing."

"Huh?" Mikan looked up at him. "But his Alice is gone. It's not like my power's blocked. I can still see all the other Alices here, and that thing." She nodded towards the wall.

Hotaru started swearing in a bunch of different languages then finally got back to Japanese, "The bloody fools, they've killed everybody."

I followed her glare out into the street and saw cars going out of control as people dropped to the sidewalk. "What? What's wrong with everybody?"

Mikan stared out at the street for several seconds. "Their Alices are getting torn from them. How come so many people got Alice?"

"Every modern human being is an Alice." Hotaru crossed her arms. "That's the spark of creativity that let us sweep all the other hominids off the globe. The Alice is sixty thousand years old and it dies today."

"What exactly did they do?" Ms. Yukihira asked.

"They used Ms. Kurata as the focus of a device to drain off the Alices in the academy, but they didn't understand that it would zap them also. Now there's nobody to turn it off."

"I can do it." Mikan stood up and faced the wall again. "It's just so complex. I just don't get it." She turned to me. "Sana, that thing you do. You copy Alices. How do you do it?" She placed her hands on my head and once again I was shocked, but this time I braced myself.

"Yeah, that's it." Mikan turned to Hotaru and stared at her for a bit then turned back towards the wall. "It's like a tornado. If I just go through the exact middle I can make it, but it's aimed over our heads. How can I get way up there?" She looked over all of us then turned back to me. "That's it." She spread her arms and her skin stretched out below them. He ears grew long and then she leaped up into the air.

I stood there stunned for a moment then shouted after her. "Hey! I've got a trademark on Babbit!"

"Ms. Yukihira." Tazusa addressed my birth mother. "Switch Sana and my Alices please."

"Why do you want Babbit?" I asked her.

"No, Sana. You need the reaper Alice. In case Mikan fails you can snatch her soul and give her a second chance. I know it's harsh but the choice is reap or die."

"Sorry." Ms. Yukihira shook her head. "I can't risk dropping the barrier to use my real Alice, and my power doesn't work on my daughters anyway. We must trust in Mikan." There was a loud explosion and Ms. Yukihira looked up. "The Alice draining effect has stopped."

"Mikan must have snatched away the focus." Hotaru started running towards the corner. "Let's go see if she's still alive."

"Akito. Stay here and watch Natsume." I chased after Hotaru.

"Wait, Sana. Isn't your Alice still broken?"

"No time to worry about that now." I turned the corner and saw a huge fireball rising from a burning skyscraper. And above that I could just make out one dot carrying another up above the flames. Somehow I could tell who they were. "Mama and Mikan!"

Ms. Yukihira turned to me then looked up at the two distant figures and frowned.

After a moment I noticed what the problem was. "They're falling. From this height they'll go splat."

"No!" Anita ran forwards, stopped, threw her arms out to her sides and howled in agony.

I looked at her and saw something strange, like strands of vapor that extended from her body. And then I noticed newspapers flying towards her and combining into something in front of her.

"Anita!" Ms. Readman ran up to her daughter. "Don't do this alone. I'll get the material. You focus on your construct."

Anita nodded and dropped to her knees with her hands clasped in front of her, as Ms. Readman threw her arms wide. Books joined the converging newspapers and were ripped apart before stacking together in some sort of structure. I glanced up and saw the two figures tumbling down then looked back down. "Anita! Your Alice is ripping you apart!"

"I don't care!" She howled.

I dropped down next to her and threw my arms around her. There had to be someway I could help.

Anita took a deep breath then looked in front of her. I followed her gaze and saw that the papers had assembled themselves into a paper spring, but 50 meters tall. And in just in time as it caught the falling figures and slowed their plunge.

The structure of the paper behemoth melted into a pile of loose papers as Anita fell back in my arms.

"Are you okay? I asked her."

"I'll be fine. Go check on them."

I handed Anita to her mother, then ran towards mine. I found her sprawled next to my sister, then gave a sigh of relief as I touched them and found them to be breathing. I turned back to the rest. "They're alive."

"But what of everybody else?" Tazusa turned to Hotaru.

Hotaru pointed out to the streets where the people had started to revive. "We seem to have stopped this in time."

"Then the only one we've lost is your father, Anita." Ms. Readman supported the daughter who leaned against her.

"No, he's back in England." Mr. Anderson carried Natsume. "He got kicked off the project after he went after Anita."

"Why haven't these three revived?" Ms. Yukihira picked up Mikan's comatose form.

"The best facility in the world for treating Alices is a few kilometers from here. Are you sure you want to face them?" Hotaru asked her.

"No, I'm still an outlaw. Please take care of my daughter and my future son-in-law."

"I too must be going." Ms. Readman knelt down to kiss Anita on the forehead. "Please be a good girl and study extra hard."

"Where are you going?" Anita asked her surviving mother.

"I'm going to have some stern words with your father. Burning down London is one thing, but this has gone entirely too far."

"You probably just want to browse his personal library."

"Well he does have some rare first editions."

"Take care, Sana." Anita bowed to me. "I'm tagging along to make sure my mother doesn't fall down any manholes while reading books."

"That's only happened twice, Dear."

"Yeah, I guess I really am needed."

"I'll tag along also." Ms. Yukihira turned to me. "Sana, please thank Ms. Kurata for looking after you all these years. Tell her I spied on her until you were three. Then I looked away, partly because I didn't want to risk drawing attention to you, partly out of jealousy, but mostly because I could see that you were in good hands."

"I'll tell Mama, Mother."

She nodded, then followed after the two papermasters and Mr. Anderson.


End file.
